Social Support and Depression Among Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Anhui, China

Xue-Hui Fang,1,2,* Qian Wu,3,* Sha-Sha Tao,4,* Zhi-Wei Xu,5 Yan-Feng Zou,4 Dong-Chun Ma,1,2 Hai-Feng Pan,4 Wen-Biao Hu6 1Anhui Provincial Chest Hospital (Anhui Institute of Tuberculosis Control), Hefei, Anhui, 230022, People’s Republic of China; 2Anhui Provincial Chest Hospital Affiliated to Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, 230022, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Tuberculosis Control and Prevention, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4006, Australia; 6School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hai-Feng Pan, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, Anhui, 230032, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 551 65161165, Fax +86 551 65161171, Email panhaifeng@ahmu.edu.cn Wen-Biao Hu, School of Public Health and Social Work, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Email w2.hu@qut.edu.auIntroduction: Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis affecting multiple tissues and organs. It is one of the leading causes of death and is a social disease in China. Increasing studies have revealed that the state of mental health and the social support are associated with the morbidity, mortality and community transmission of pulmonary TB patients. However, the previous global TB control and research strategy focused almost solely on the biomedical aspects. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the level of depr