Depression, anxiety and quality of life of Afghan women living in urban areas under the Taliban government: a cross-sectional study

Ahmad Neyazi; Bijaya K Padhi; Ab Qadim Mohammadi; Mahsa Ahmadi; Adiba Erfan; Bahara Bashiri; Mehrab Neyazi; Marjina Ishaqzada; Morteza Noormohammadi; Mark D Griffiths

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071939

Depression, anxiety and quality of life of Afghan women living in urban areas under the Taliban government: a cross-sectional study

BMJ Open. 2023 Aug 3;13(8):e071939. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-071939.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Afghanistan Center for Epidemiological Studies, Herat, Afghanistan ahmadniazi000@gmail.com.
² Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
³ Herat Regional Hospital, Herat, Afghanistan.
⁴ Department of Neuroscience, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA.
⁵ Afghanistan Medical Students Association, Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.
⁶ Atefi Institute of Health Sciences, Herat, Afghanistan.
⁷ Afghanistan Medical Students Association, Kabul, Afghanistan.
⁸ Afghanistan Center for Epidemiological Studies, Herat, Afghanistan.
⁹ Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.

Abstract

Objectives: According to the World Health Organization, depression is a common mental health illness that is characterised by a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. The present study examined the association of two mental health variables (ie, depression, anxiety) with quality of life (QoL) and the sociodemographic characteristics of Afghan women living in urban areas under the rule of Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Design: Cross-sectional study administered between 10 November 2021 to 25 December 2021 among women.

Setting: Across major provinces of Afghanistan (Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul and Samangan).

Measurements: Data were collected using a pretested structured questionnaire. Data entry was carried out using Microsoft Excel 2016. And then exported to IBM SPSS V.26 for Microsoft Windows. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association of depression, anxiety with QoL and sociodemographic characteristics among women (N=438).

Results: The prevalence of depression symptoms was 80.4%, and the prevalence of mild to extremely severe anxiety was 81.0%. Depression symptoms among Afghan women were associated with being older, having more children, lower education level, other individuals' bad behaviour, bad events experienced in the past month, and feeling physically ill. Multiple regression analysis indicated that low monthly household income (adjusted OR, AOR 2.260; 95% CI 1.179 to 4.331, p=0.014) poor physical domain of QoL (AOR 4.436; 95% CI 1.748 to 11.256, p=0.002) and poor psychological domain of QoL (AOR 23.499; 95% CI 7.737 to 71.369, p<0.001) were significantly associated with depression.

Conclusion: The prevalence of depression was high among women living under the government of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Considering the high prevalence of depression, anxiety and their impact on QoL and the overall quality of healthcare services, international health organisations should implement programmes for regular screening of depression and anxiety, and there should be psychological counselling services available for vulnerable women living under the government of the Taliban.

Keywords: anxiety disorders; depression & mood disorders; quality of life.

MeSH terms

Anxiety / epidemiology
Anxiety Disorders
Child
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression* / epidemiology
Female
Humans
Prevalence
Quality of Life*