Abstract
Background: Estimates of the prevalence of depression or depressive symptoms among medical students varies across studies from 1.4% to 73.5%. Studies also report conflicting findings about if student depression vary by undergraduate year. sex, or other characteristics.
Objective: to assess the prevalence and factors associated with depression among medical students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students at Ibn Sina National College of Medical Science of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The presence of depression and its severity was based on PHQ depression scale (PHQ9) 19, using Google form link. Data was collected using data on the outcome of interest (depression), socio-demographic characteristics (age, sex, source of income and marital status). academic-related factors (academic year of study).
Results: Depression was detected in 75.31% of the studied population , considering 10 score as a cut off point for depression. Among those depressed groups 23.44% were scored as having moderate depression (10-14) while those who had moderately severe (15-19) and severe (20 or more) were 28.93% and 22.94% respectively. The present study showed that depression was significantly more prevalent among female medical students compared to male medical students. The prevalence of depression was more in the second year medical students followed by the sixth year and the difference found between the severity of depression and year of studying was statistically significant.
Conclusion: Depression is highly prevalent among medical student populations. Implications of depression are of serious concern that could result in loss of potential to handle various stressors at college, impairment of functioning in classroom performance and later in clinical practice.