Prevalence and Associated Factors of Depression among Orphan Adolescents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Background: Orphan adolescents are a special group of people who are generally deprived and prone to develop psychiatric disorder even if reared in a well-run institution.

Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of depression among orphan adolescents living in Addis Ababa orphan centers, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 among 453 orphan adolescents in Ethiopia. All orphan adolescents who were living in the selected orphan centers were included in the study. The data was collected by interviewing the orphan adolescents at the orphan center by using a structured questionnaire. Kocher adolescent depression scale and MSPSS scale were used to measure orphan level of depression and their perceived social support. After appropriate coding, the collected data had been entered into EPI info version 7 and it was exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. The OR with 95% CI was used to measure association and p value < 0.05 was used as statistically significant value in multivariable binary logistic regressions.

Result: The overall prevalence of depression among the orphan adolescents was found to be 36.4%. The majority of the respondents, 302 (66.7%), were within the age range of 15-19 years. Perceived social support (OR 5.86; 95% CI 3.47, 9.91), community discrimination (OR 2.68; 95% CI 1.58, 4.56), length of stay (OR 1.90; 95% CI 1.08, 3.35), age of entrance (OR 2.21; 95% CI 1.32, 3.69), and presence of visitors (OR 3.62; 95% CI 2.06, 6.37) were the main variables associated with depression.

Conclusion: The prevalence of depression among orphan adolescents was found to be high. Low level of social support, higher length of stay, community discrimination, the presence of visitors, and younger age of entrance were statistically significant variables to develop depression.