High levels of mild to moderate depression among men who have sex with men and transgender women in Lima, Peru: implications for integrated depression and HIV care

ABSTRACT

Depression disproportionally affects people at risk of acquiring or living with HIV and is associated with worse health outcomes; however, depression care is not routinely integrated with HIV prevention and treatment services. Selection of the best depression intervention(s) for integration depends both on the prevalence and severity of depression among potential users. To inform depression care integration in a community-based setting in Lima, Peru, we retrospectively analyzed routinely collected depression screening data from men who have sex with men and transgender women seeking HIV prevention and care services (N = 185). Depression was screened for using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Prevalence of any depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 5) was 42% and was significantly associated with the last sexual partner being “casual” (p = 0.01). Most (81%) depressive symptoms were mild to moderate (≥5 PHQ-9 ≤ 14). Integrating depression care with HIV prevention and treatment services in Peru should begin by implementing interventions targeting mild to moderate depression.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• depression
• MSM
• transgender
• integrated care

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

JTG, SRL, HS and BB conceived the data analysis, HS compiled the dataset and ZZ conducted performed the statistical data analysis. JTG wrote the first draft of the manuscript, which was reviewed and edited by all authors.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors express gratitude to Epicentro for provision of these data and their important work towards integration of depression and HIV care in Lima, Peru and to Caroline Muster for manuscript preparation support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse: [Grant Number K99/R00DA046311]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.