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Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding depression among primary health care providers in Fako division, Cameroon

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Psychiatry, March 2018
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (75th percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

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1 blog
twitter
1 X user
facebook
1 Facebook page

Citations

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33 Dimensions

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198 Mendeley
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Title
Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding depression among primary health care providers in Fako division, Cameroon
Published in
BMC Psychiatry, March 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12888-018-1653-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Isabelle Dibu Mulango, Julius Atashili, Bradley N. Gaynes, Tsi Njim

Abstract

Mental health and mental illness are often overlooked in the management of patients in our health services. Depression is a common mental disorder worldwide. Recognising and managing mental illnesses such as depression by primary health care providers (PHCPs) is crucial. This study describes the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of PHCPs regarding depression in Fako Division. A cross-sectional study was conducted among PHCPs (general practitioners, nurses, pharmacy attendants and social workers) in public-owned health facilities in the four health districts in Fako Division. Participants were selected by a consecutive convenience sampling. A structured questionnaire including the Depression Attitude Questionnaire (DAQ) was used to collect information about their socio-demographic characteristics, professional qualifications and KAP about depression. The survey had a response rate of 56.7%. Most of the 226 participants (92.9%) were aware that depression needs medical intervention. Only 1.8% knew a standard tool used to diagnose depression. Two-thirds agreed that majority of the cases of depression encountered originate from recent misfortune. About 66% felt uncomfortable working with depressed patients. Also, 45.1% of PHCPs did not know if psychotropic drugs were available at pharmacies within their health area. Very few (15.2%) reported to have prescribed psychotropic drugs. Less than half (49.1%) of the participants had prior formal training in mental health. PHCPs in Fako Division tend to have limited knowledge and poor attitudes regarding depression. Practices towards diagnosis and management of depression tend to be inadequate. There is an urgent need to train PHCPs in mental health in general and depression diagnosis and management in particular.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 198 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 198 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 34 17%
Student > Bachelor 19 10%
Student > Postgraduate 17 9%
Researcher 15 8%
Lecturer 9 5%
Other 31 16%
Unknown 73 37%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 50 25%
Nursing and Health Professions 27 14%
Psychology 9 5%
Social Sciences 7 4%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 5 3%
Other 22 11%
Unknown 78 39%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 8. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 August 2018.
All research outputs
#4,031,274
of 23,026,672 outputs
Outputs from BMC Psychiatry
#1,518
of 4,748 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#80,388
of 333,594 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Psychiatry
#54
of 91 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,026,672 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 82nd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,748 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 333,594 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 91 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 35th percentile – i.e., 35% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.