Prevalence and factors associated with diagnosed depression among hospitalized cancer patients with metastatic disease

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the factors associated with diagnosed depression among patients with a metastatic cancer. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 39,223 hospital records from 2008 to 2013 National Inpatient Sample for patients with metastatic cancer. Diagnosed depression was defined using ICD-9-CM for major depression. Weighted, multivariable hierarchical regression model was used to examine the association between sociodemographic and clinical factors and depression among patients with a metastatic cancer. Results: The prevalence of clinically diagnosed depression in patients with a metastatic cancer in our study sample was 7.3% (5.9% for males and 8.6% for females). The prevalence rate of diagnosed depression increased from 5.3 to 9.4% between 2008 and 2013. In multivariable analysis, patients were more likely to be diagnosed with depression if they were females (aOR = 1.44; 95% CI 1.25–1.66) compared to males; and had higher number of comorbidities (aOR = 1.11 per 1-unit increase in Elixhauser comorbidity score, 95% CI 1.07–1.15). In contrast, patients were less likely to be diagnosed with depression if they were blacks (aOR = 0.59; 95% CI 0.47–0.74) or other race (aOR = 0.58; 95% CI 0.47–0.72) compared with white patients. Conclusions: Women and individuals with more comorbidities were diagnosed with depression more frequently, whereas black patients were diagnosed less. Our findings could help providers to identify hospitalized patients with the higher risk of depression and screened patients with signs and symptoms of clinical depression.