Depression of Women after a Hysterectomy

Park, Young Sook; Ahn, Young Lan

Abstract

The purposes of the study was to identify the depression of women after a hysterectomy and to clarify the factors related to depression. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The data was collected by a mailed questionnaire that was composed of the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale(SDS), support scale of husband and socio-demographic variables from 255 women undergoing hysterectomies for any nonmalignant condition in S. University Hospital. They also must have lived with their spouses from 3 months to 2 years after the operation. The results were as follows: 1. The SDS mean was 42.25 and range was 21 to 67. The incidence of clinical depression (over SDS 50) was 20.8% from 3 months to 2 years after a hysterectomy. 2. The depression of women in 18-24 months after surgery (39.80) was lower than that of any other periods such as 3-5 months, 6-12 months, and 13-17 months (p<0.01). 3. The support form husband was negatively correlated with the depression of women after a hysterectomy. 4. Depression among women had hysterectomies were associated with lower income, less sexual satisfaction, the feeling of being asexual, and the bias of concept the uterus controlling general health.