• Postgrad Med J · Jun 2020

    Prevalence of depression and its associated factors among clinical-year medical students in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia.

    • Nouf A AlShamlan, Reem A AlShamlan, Abeer A AlShamlan, Reem S AlOmar, Naheel A AlAmer, Magdy A Darwish, and Abdulaziz M Sebiany.
    • Department of Family and Community Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia nashamlan@iau.edu.sa.
    • Postgrad Med J. 2020 Jun 1; 96 (1136): 343-348.

    BackgroundTo assess the prevalence of depression among medical students in their clinical years (fourth, fifth, and sixth years) in a government university in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, and its association with the students' sociodemographic characteristics, academic factors, perceived health problems and their perceived readiness to their future specialties.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 527 clinical-year medical students. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and questionnaire designed by the researchers to collect data on sociodemographic and academic variables were used as research instruments. Statistical analyses were conducted using Stata Statistical Software V.15. Descriptive statistics, the χ test, and both an ordered logistic regression and a binary logistic regression analysis were performed.ResultsThe prevalence of depression was found to be 39.27%, according to the results of the PHQ-9. Both the ordered logistic regression and the binary logistic regression analyses revealed that the odds of severe depression were high among women, and students who perceived that they were not yet ready for their future specialties. The more senior the medical students were, the less likely it is that they have severe depression. A similar association was found for students who perceived that they did not have psychological problems. However, students' grade point average was not statistically significantly associated with depression.ConclusionsThe prevalence of depression was high among the medical students examined. Policy makers should establish screening programmes, provide counselling for students who need it and deliver early interventions in detected cases.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…