Introduction: Diabetes is one of the most common chronic conditions in the world. The worldwide prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) has risen dramatically over the past two decades from 4.7% (1980) to 8.5% (2014). India has the largest number of diabetic population in the world (69.2 million). The prevalence of clinical depression and presence of elevated depressive symptoms are higher among persons with diabetes compared to the general population. This association may be bidirectional. Depressed patients are also reluctant, non-compliant and fail to adhere to anti diabetic drugs and show poorer self-management when compared with those without depression. Hence there is a need to study the importance of evaluation of depression in diabetes and how socio demographic characteristics contribute towards depression. This will help in better management of this infirmity. Objective: 1.To compare the proportion of depression among chronic type 2 diabetes patients of Government and Private tertiary care hospitals. 2. To assess the association between socio-demographic variables, disease duration and diabetic complications with the depression among chronic type 2 diabetes patients. Methodology: A comparative study done in Government and private tertiary care hospitals. Diabetes patients utilizing the healthcare facility (100 each from Government and private hospitals) were the study subjects. Data was collected through pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Depression was assessed using “Hamilton Depression scale”. Results and conclusion: About half of the diabetic patients had depression. There was a significant association between depression and complications like cardiovascular symptoms, neuropathy and retinopathy and glycaemic control of study subjects.

Keywords: Depression; Diabetes Complications; Diabetes; Glycaemic Control.