Prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder and major depression in health-care givers of disabled patients in Majmaah and Shaqra cities, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

INTRODUCTION

Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes such as increased blood pressure, etc. The impact of anxiety and depression on health-caregivers of disabled patients are very important because these psychological disorders effects both the health-caregivers and the patients which lead to unexpected bad events.

OBJECTIVES

The current study was aimed to find out the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder and major depression in health-care givers of disabled patients and to observe associations between demographic characteristics and psychological disorders in Majmaah and Shaqra Cities, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

METHODS

A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted in rehabilitation centers at Majmaah and Shaqra Cities. The data comprising 100 health-care givers was collected from February to April 2015 through complete enumeration sampling method. A pre-validated "general health quality questionnaire" was used to collect the data.

RESULTS

Majority of the participants were male ( = 75, 75%). More than 50% of the participants were holding bachelors' degree. Almost three-fifths of the participants had monthly income between 5000 and 15,000 SAR. The prevalence of somatic disorder was only (2%), anxiety disorder (3%), and depression (1%). However, in psychosocial and stress, the prevalence was (8%), respectively. No significant association was observed between demographic characteristics (nationality, gender, marital status, educational level, occupation, and income) and psychological disorders (somatic, anxiety, psychosocial, depression, and stress) > 0.05, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of psychological disorders was very low. Nationality, gender, marital status, educational level, occupation, and income were not significantly associated with psychological disorders.