Social Support and Depression Among Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Anhui, China.

Introduction: Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out to describe the status of depression and social support, and explore related factors associated with depression among pulmonary TB patients in Anhui Province, China. Five counties (districts) in Anhui Province, China were selected by simple random sampling method. Patients diagnosed with pulmonary TB eligible to the study criteria were investigated. A structured questionnaire composed of information on socio-demographic characteristics, self-rating depression scale (SDS) and social support rating scale (SSRS) was used to collect the data. Results: In this study, a total of 250 questionnaires were issued, and the effective questionnaires 237 were actually returned. Of the 237 patients with pulmonary TB, 71.3% of them were male and the mean age was 46.16 years (SD = 13.09). Depression symptoms were observed in 125 (52.7%) participants. Objective support ( Discussion: In summary, the prevalence of depressive symptoms in pulmonary TB patients were high in Anhui Province, China. Low levels of social support can be an important predictor of depression symptoms. Therefore, screening for depression among pulmonary TB patients in the primary care setting is greatly warranted. Furthermore, psychological interventions should focus on providing available and adequate social support in order to improve mental health of them.