Screening of Depression in Infertile Females Attending Infertility Clinic in Egypt: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Infertility can have an extravagated impact on the psychological wellbeing of the couple and subsequently affect the marital relationship and the quality of life. Objective: To screen for depression in infertile female attending infertility clinic and to determine the severity of depression in relation to duration of infertility and other socio-demographic characteristics in an Egyptian setting. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from June 2014 to December 2014 in the infertility clinic in Kasr Al-Ainy hospital. Three hundred infertile females were screened for depression using the Arabic version of the Patient Heath Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Results: According to (PHQ-9), 62.3% of the studied infertile females suffer from moderate to severe depression. The score of PHQ-9 was inversely proportionate to both the duration of marriage (P value=0.038, person correlation:-0.12) and duration of infertility (P value=0.025, person correlation: -0.13) and was directly proportionate to age of studied females (P value =0.032, person correlation: 0.124), their educational level (P value =0.000, person correlation: 0.312) and number of trial of assisted reproductive technique (P value=0.001, person correlation: 0.189), and these data were statistically significant. Conclusion: A large percentage of Egyptian infertile females suffer from depression. And this highlights the challenging need for providing individualized bio-psychosocial care for all infertile Egyptian females.