Prevalence and predictors of depression, anxiety, and stress among adults in Ghana: A community-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction Over the past two decades, there have been several global interventions including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aimed at improving health outcomes. Despite efforts by countries to achieve the SDG targets, mental health challenges remain major public health concerns globally. We examined the prevalence and predictors of depression, anxiety, and stress as well as the comorbidities of these mental health issues among adults. Materials and methods This was a community-based cross-sectional study conducted among 2456 adults in four districts of the Volta Region of Ghana using data from the UHAS-Yonsei University Partnership Project. We analysed the data using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, correlation, and binary logistic regression. Results Overall, 51.8% of the participants had at least one of the mental health issues examined. The prevalence of a mental health issue was 25.2%, 53.3%, and 9.7% for depression, anxiety, and stress respectively. Participants constituting 8.3% experienced all three mental health issues as comorbidities. Participants’ level of formal education and income significantly predicted depression, anxiety, and stress respectively at the multivariable level. Adults with a tertiary level of education were, for instance, 68% (AOR = 0.32, 95%CI = 0.15–0.66), 65% (AOR = 0.35, 95%CI = 0.17–0.73), and 50% (AOR = 0.50, 95%CI = 0.33–0.76) less likely to experience depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively compared with those who had no formal education. Conclusion The majority of our study participants either experienced depression, anxiety, or stress. There were quite high comorbidities of the mental health issues among the adult population. To accelerate progress towards the achievement of SDG 3.4 target of promoting mental health and wellbeing for all by the year 2030, there is a need for effective implementation of the country’s 2012 Mental Health Act which makes provisions for the establishment of a Mental Health Fund. This could improve the financial circumstances of indigenes as income has been realised in the present study as an important factor influencing depression, anxiety, and stress among the adult population.

Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Their Associations With Quality of Life in a Nationwide Sample of Psychiatrists in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This difference may be because this study was executed after these aforementioned investigations; hence, there may have been understandable improvements in the psychological health of healthcare workers over time. Of note, the prevalence of all three symptoms (8%) among Chinese psychiatrists who specialize in interventions for individuals with mental illness in this study was similar to that of the general population in at least one other country (Ghana) (8.3%) (Amu et al, 2021 ), suggesting that caring for this patient population may be detrimental to the mental health and wellbeing of psychiatrists. Such a high prevalence of mental health symptoms among Chinese psychiatrists means that more easily accessible and uniquely tailored healthcare services should be provided to this population.…”

“…Binary logistic regression models (univariable and multivariable) were used to investigate the independent risk factors associated with depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms. In a multivariable logistic regression model, mental health problems (such as depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms) were the dependent variables, and the covariates were the variables that showed significant differences ( P < 0.2) between the depression/no-depression, anxiety/no-anxiety, and stress/no-stress groups in the univariable analysis (Amu et al, 2021 ). The independent associations of depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms and their interaction with QOL were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANOVA) after controlling for variables with striking group differences in univariable analyses.…”

Prevalence of mental, neurological and substance use conditions and case detection at primary healthcare facilities across three districts in Ghana: findings from a cross-sectional health facility survey

“…Our study found associations between severe mental illness like psychosis and depression. This is consistent with previous studies that have reported psychiatric comorbidities among patients with schizophrenia including depression and anxiety disorders (41,55,56), with depression co-occurring in persons within first episode psychosis (55).…”

“…An overall prevalence of depression among the study participants was 15.6%. This prevalence compares with previous studies in Ghana that reported depression prevalence in the range of 25% to 62% (38)(39)(40)(41). We observed a marginally higher prevalence of depression in men than in women in the whole sample.…”

Depression, anxiety, and stress in residents of a neglected population in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho

“…*Globally, in the face of the growing threat from the new variants of the coronavirus , it has been reported at the public health level that the general population has increased rates of depression, anxiety, and stress (Amu et al, 2021). So, the infection rates for the new variant are increasing and this increases different psycho-emotional signs in each of the people (Alnazly et al, 2021;Li et al, 2021a).…”