Objective: To determine the differences in depressive symptoms (DS) among a sample of patients hospitalized with heart failure (HF).
Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional design was used.
Methods: The Beck Depression Inventory was used to measure DS, and HF severity was assessed using the New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification system. The sociodemographic and clinical variables examined include age, sex, education, marital status, fixed monthly income, habitation, living arrangement and HF severity. The differences between the presence and absence of the variables were evaluated using the Student's t test.
Results: The sample included 103 patients with a mean age of 65.4 years: 38 (36.9%) were men and 65 (63.1%) were women. Forty-three patients (41.7%) were in NYHA class III, and approximately one-half of the patient sample (49.5%) were married. Patients with NYHA class IV HF had significantly more DS than patients with NYHA class II or III. Age was correlated with scores of DS (P=0.002). There were significant differences in DS among the variables of marital status, habitation and living arrangement.
Conclusions: Depression is a common and treatable clinical finding in hospitalized patients, requiring an early diagnosis and appropriate treatment for effective management. The implementation and monitoring of treatment are necessary to reduce the costs of treatment of HF.
Keywords: Depression; Heart failure; Sociodemographic factors.