Global and regional geographical prevalence of depression in gastric cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Substantial uncertainty exists about the prevalence of depression in patients with gastric cancer. We aimed to summarise the global and regional pooled prevalence of depression among patients with gastric cancer. METHOD: Up to February 2020, we searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Web of science (ISI) and PsychINFO to identify published studies on the prevalence of depression among patients with gastric cancer. The study selection procedure was in accordance to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We estimated the prevalence of depression in gastric cancer patients using a random-effect pooled estimate analysis approach with subgroup analysis based on WHO regions, and methods of depression measurement. RESULTS: Totally, we retrieved 3781 studies from the previously mentioned databases, of which 18 (12 cross-sectional and 6 cohort studies in design) met the eligibility criteria, which were published from 2001 to 2017 in different regions. The total sample size of the included studied contained 4709 patients with gastric cancer, of which 1885 cases were diagnosed with depression. The pooled prevalence of depression among gastric cancer patients was 37%(95% CI: 26% to 48%). Subgroup analysis showed that the highest prevalence of depression was in Eastern Mediterranean (pooled prevalence=42%; 95% CI: 18% to 65%) followed by the Western Pacific region (pooled prevalence=40%;95% CI: 26% to 54%). The results indicated a significant heterogeneity (I 2=98.8%,P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicated that depression is high among gastric cancer patients. The findings suggest health authorities to provide specially designed social and psychological supportive care services, including screening for depression, among such patients. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020139836.

Meta-analysis of the prevalence of depression among breast cancer survivors in Iran: an urgent need for community supportive care programs.

OBJECTIVES: Depression, which is the most common comorbidity in breast cancer (BC) patients, has adverse effects on patients' quality of life, disease progress, and survival. METHODS: The protocol of this study was registered in PROSPERO (registration No. CRD42019121494). We electronically searched published studies through January 2019 with the aim of finding articles that investigated the prevalence of depression among BC survivors. Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed/MEDLINE, Science Direct, and Google Scholar were searched to obtain relevant published studies. This review included 14 cross-sectional and 4 cohort studies published from 2000 to 2018. We used a random-effects model to conduct the meta-analysis and generated a summary estimate for the pooled prevalence with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). A subgroup analysis was also conducted based on the depression assessment tool used and the study design. RESULTS: The total sample size of the studies contained 2,799 women with BC, including 1,228 women who were diagnosed with depression. The pooled prevalence of depression among Iranian women with BC was 46.83% (95% CI, 33.77 to 59.88) with significant heterogeneity (I2 =98.5%; p<0.001). The prevalence of depression ranged from 14.00% (95% CI, 4.91 to 23.09) to 95.90% (95% CI, 91.97 to 99.83). The results of the subgroup analyses suggested that the depression assessment tool, year of publication, and study design were sources of heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate a high prevalence of depression among BC patients, underscoring the urgent need for clinicians and health authorities to provide well-defined social and psychological supportive care programs for these patients.