School of Vocational Studies

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Browsing School of Vocational Studies by Subject "Depression"

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    Nutritional status, functional capacity and quality of life among elderly in Lugazi municipality, buikwe district
    (Kyambogo University [unpublished work], 2023-11) Zebosi, Benon
    Background: Every country in the world is facing a new demographic challenge due to drastic growth of elderly population. Adequate diet, nutritional status and functional capacity are important determinants of health status among this age group. With malnutrition, functional dependence and quality of life becoming serious health burdens among the elderly, there is need for early identification of the factors associated with nutritional status and functional capacity as a way to improve the health status and quality of life of aging individuals. Objectives: This study aimed at identifying the factors associated with nutritional status and functional capacity among elderly in Lugazi Municipality, Buikwe district. Methods: This was a community-based cross-sectional study among elderly persons aged 65 – 85 in 50 randomly selected Villages between September and December 2021. Simple random sampling technique was used with a sample size of 353 participants. Nutritional status was assessed by Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA), functional capacity was assessed by Lawton – Broody activities of daily living questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics while the associations were determined by logistic regression method. Results: Among 353 participants, 26.9% (n=95) were found to be with a normal nutritional status, 47.0% (n=166) were at risk of malnutrition and 26.1% (n=92) were malnourished. 14.7% (n=52) were found to be dependent, 79.0% (279) had moderate independence while 6.2% were independent regarding instrumental activities of daily living. The factors associated with nutritional status among elderly after controlling for confounders in multi-variate logistic regression analysis were age 1.5 (1.38-1.59, p<0.001), gender 0.5 (0.36-0.79, p<0.002), level of education 0.8 (0.06-0.50, p=0.001), marital status 1.8 (1.23-2.72, p=0.003) and depression 1.9 (1.32-2.98, p=0.001) while functional capacity was associated with age 0.7 (0.6-0.8, p<0.001), marital status 0.2 (0.1-0.5, p=<0.001) and quality of life 0.1 (0.0-0.4, p<0.001). Conclusions: The prevalence of malnutrition among the elderly was high. Therefore additional steps to prevent, treat and care for the affected elderly is required. Social protection initiates such as the SCG should be made more nutritional sensitive to improve elderly nutrition directly. Elderly Empowerment Groups should also be formed at community level to engage in nutrition sensitive activities. Malnutrition and functional dependence were prevalent among the elderly and were associated with gender, age, level of education, marital status, quality of life and depression among the elderly persons in Lugazi Municipality. Keywords: Elderly Persons, Nutritional Status, Functional Capacity, Quality of Life, Depression
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    A pragmatic randomized trial to examine the effect of combining healthy diet with mindfulness cognitive therapy to reduce depressive symptoms among university students in a low-resource setting: protocol for the NutriMind Project
    (BMC Psychiatry, 2024-09-11) Kardel, Kristin Reimers; Iversen, Per Ole; Kaaya, Archileo Natigo; Muhoozi, Grace; Veierød, Marit B.; Wangen, Knut Reidar; Børøsund, Elin; Atukunda, Prudence Friberg
    Background Mental health disorders still rank as leading causes of morbidity worldwide despite increasing awareness and improvements in treatment. Notably, low- and middle-income countries like Uganda, are disproportionately affected by such disorders. The burden of depressive symptoms in these countries is particularly high among students, aggravated by poverty, malnutrition, and inadequate public health governance, yet it is clearly under-researched, making it hard to achieve several of UN Sustainability Development Goals. Current treatment options are insufficient to tackle the increased burden of depressive disease. This is more challenging for low-resource regions especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, suggesting the need for alternative treatments that can swiftly be applied if proven effective. The main aim of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) is therefore to examine if a low-cost healthy diet (based on local Ugandan foods) combined with easy-to access mindfulness cognitive therapy can reduce depressive symptoms among university students in Uganda. Methods We will recruit female and male students at Makerere University, the largest public university in Uganda, to an open, intention-to-treat, two-armed RCT. Those who score above a predefined threshold on a self-reported assessment of depressive symptoms, measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies – Depression score (CES-D), are eligible for study inclusion and will be randomized to either an intervention (n = 125) or a control (n = 125) group. The intervention group will receive educational group-based sessions on how to prepare a Mediterranean-type of healthy diet and how to adhere to the principles of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Outcome measures include self-reported depression symptoms, quality of life, and dietary intakes. In addition we will perform a cost-effectiveness analysis. The RCT intervention will last 9 months, followed by additional 15 months with regular data collections. Discussion We here describe a novel approach to treat depressive symptoms among university students living in resource constraint settings, by combining a healthy diet with low threshold psychotherapy. If this intervention succeeds, our project can be viewed as a step towards evidence-based behavior practices for young adults with a common mental disorder (depression) that are beneficial to public mental health initiatives and management. Trial registration The RCT is registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT05848973). The date of registration was August 14, 2023. Keywords Depression, Diet, Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), Mental health, Randomized trial, Uganda, University students