Prevalence and determinants of depression and/or anxiety among adults using Kenya Demographic and Health Survey of 2022: Multilevel logistic regression analysis

TL;DR

This study finds that about 4% of adults in Kenya experience depression and/or anxiety, with factors like chronic illness and HIV increasing the risk.

Contribution

This study provides new insights into the prevalence and determinants of depression and anxiety in Kenya using the 2022 Demographic and Health Survey data.

Findings

The overall prevalence of depression and/or anxiety was 3.84% among adults in Kenya.

Factors like sexual violation, chronic illness, and being HIV positive were significantly associated with depression and/or anxiety.

Abstract

Depression and/or anxiety can be persistent or recurrent significantly affecting a person’s capacity to manage daily life, job, and school. The burden of depression and anxiety is rising from time to time, with serious consequences for overall health. Depression and anxiety are crippling conditions that can impact individuals of the whole community. Despite the high prevalence of depression and/or anxiety few studies were conducted that show the diagnosis levels of depression and/or anxiety in the community, particularly in Kenya. Therefore, this study aims to determine the prevalence of depression and/or anxiety and their determinant factors among adults in Kenya using data sourced from the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.

The Kenya demographic and health survey of 2022 data were used for this secondary data analysis in 2024. The survey included age groups ranging from 15 to 49, with a total sample size of 16,901 participants. Multilevel analysis was used to determine the prevalence of depression and/or anxiety with determinant factors at the 95% CI.

The overall prevalence of depression and/or anxiety was 3.84% with a 95% CI of (3.56, 4.14). Of this, 2.85% have only depression, 1.97% have only anxiety disorders, and 0.98% have comorbid depression and anxiety. In multivariable multilevel logistic regression analysis sexually violated, having a chronic medical illness, being divorced and widowed, having a job, and being HIV positive were associated with depression and/or anxiety with a p-value of less than 0.05.

According to the findings of this study the prevalence of depression and/or anxiety was 3.84%. This finding poses a significant challenge for the community to perform their daily tasks. As a result, the healthcare systems of Kenya have to mitigate the burden of depression and/or anxiety. All the clients must be treated since they received a diagnosis as reported by the physician.

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