Food insecurity and level of depression among patients with chronic diseases, and associated factors during the COVID-19 lockdown: a cross-sectional study in rural Rwanda.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to describe access to food and symptoms of depression among patients with chronic diseases or their caregivers, and assess associated factors during the COVID-19 lockdown in rural Rwanda.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study.

SETTING AND

PARTICIPANTS

A stratified random sampling technique was used to recruit 220 patients enrolled in the HIV, non-communicable diseases, mental health, paediatric development clinic and oncology programmes in three rural districts of Rwanda.

OUTCOME MEASURES: Telephone-based interviews were conducted to collect data on the number of daily meals before and during the COVID-19, and depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. We used logistic regression analysis to investigate factors associated with households reporting a reduction in daily meals and with the survey respondent reporting symptoms of depression.

RESULTS

Of the participants, 19.1% reported a reduction in daily number of meals for either adults or children in their households during lockdown and 24.6% had depression. Reporting a reduction in daily meals was associated with the district of residence and estimated household's monthly income. Self-reported depression was significantly associated with negative experiences during lockdown, including reporting feeling depressed or fear (AOR 4.82; 95% CI 2.08 to 11.21), loneliness (AOR 4.33; 95% CI 1.32 to 14.13), reduction in daily meals (AOR 4.15; 95% CI 1.56 to 11.00) and lack of access to healthcare (OR 3.29; 95% CI 1.32 to 8.23).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that significant reduction in access to food affected rural Rwandans with chronic diseases during COVID-19 lockdown, and the lockdown effect varied by household's pre-pandemic level of vulnerability to food insecurity. Reduction in household meals, as well as other self-reported effects of the lockdown, were associated with worse psychological status of survey respondents. Economic and food support should be considered by governments and non-governmental organisations to protect those most vulnerable including patients with chronic diseases against the effects of pandemics and their associated containment measures.