A Study on Prevalence and Factors Associated with the Depression among Medical Adolescent Students

• Main Authors: Vanitha S S (Author), Sandhya Rani Javalkar (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Medsci Publications, 2018-03-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 0976-3325; 2229-6816
• Keywords: Beck Depression Inventory; depression; medical; adolescents; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: National Journal of Community Medicine, Vol 9, Iss 03 (2018)

Background: Depression in adolescents is an under recognized mental health problem because they are indecisive to disclose their feelings and seldom seek psychiatric help. Objectives: The objectives were to determine the prevalence of depression in medical adolescents and to assess the factors contributing to depression in medical adolescents Materials and methods: It was a cross-sectional one-time observational study using simple screening instruments for detecting early symptoms of depression in adolescents done in J. J. M. Medical College for a period of 3 months, the study subjects were all first MBBS adolescents given the consent were evaluated so as to eliminate any selection bias.A pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire used to assess the factors that contributes to depression and Beck Depression Inventory scale was used assess the level of depression. Statistical analysis was done with chi-square/Fisher's Exact Test using SPSS version 16. Results: Statistical association was found between depression and some of the contributing factors like parental support to children activities, family health status, academic performance by students, student felt discrimination by the teacher and those not actively involved in the sports and cultural activities. Conclusion: This study suggests that there are certain contributing factors both in family and college academic stressors which predispose the medical adolescent students to psychological morbidity such as depression.