ReviewA systematic review of studies of depression prevalence in university students
Section snippets
Background
Depression is one of the most common health problems for university students (Lyubomirsky et al., 2003; Vredenburg et al., 1988). Depression is considered as a multi-problematic disorder that leads to impairment in inter-personal, social, and occupational functioning (Sadock and Kaplan, 2007). The basic characteristic of depression is a loss of positive affect which manifests itself in a range of symptoms, including sleep disturbance, lack of self-care, poor concentration, anxiety and lack of
Method
A systematic literature review of PubMed, PsycINFO, BioMed Central and Medline databases was carried out to identify peer-reviewed studies, published between January 1990 and October 2010, reporting on depression among undergraduate university students. Searches used the keywords depression, depressive symptoms, depressive disorders, prevalence, university students, college students, undergraduate students, adolescents and/or young adults were used in the searches. Additional articles were
Quality evaluation
The 24 articles were read extensively and, as there is no agreed quality assessment instrument for epidemiological prevalence studies, we adapted one developed by Parker and colleagues (Parker et al., 2008). Articles scored one point for each of the following quality markers: (1) the target population was defined clearly, (2) complete, random or consecutive recruitment, (3) the targeted sample is representative or the report presents evidence that the results can be generalized to the general
Results
Out of a total of 2303 publications, only 24 studies satisfied all the inclusion and exclusion criteria Fig. 1. The majority of the included studies (n = 15) had been carried out in Western countries. Nine had been carried out in the USA (Eisenberg et al., 2007; Garlow et al., 2008; Goebert et al., 2009; Hendryx et al., 1991; Roberts et al., 2010; Rosal et al., 1997; Schwenk et al., 2010; Thompson et al., 2010; Tjia et al., 2005), one in Canada (Dion and Giordano, 1990), one in Sweden (Dahlin
Discussion
The current review included studies published between January 1990 and October 2010 and reporting on depression among undergraduate university students including medical students. According to this current review the average depression prevalence is 30.6%, a higher rate than the 9% found in the general population rates of the US (range 6–12%) (Gonzalez et al., 2010). Moreover, a community-based cross-national survey of depression prevalence carried out in 10 countries in North America, Latin
Conclusion and recommendations
Although there is a need for more in-depth research to confirm the findings of this review, there is accumulating evidence to suggest that depression represents a significant health concern in university populations with, on average, nearly a third of students affected. Furthermore the weighted mean prevalence of depressive disorders in students of 30.6% is considerably higher than rates reported in general populations. This systematic review emphasizes that depression is a common mental health
Conflict of interest
None.
Contributors
Authors contributed equally to the work.
Role of funding source
None.
Acknowledgments
I am very grateful for the Ministry of Higher Education, Egyptian Government specially Assiut University for sponsoring my whole studies. It is a pleasure to express my deepest gratitude and grateful appreciation to the University of Nottingham for supporting this study.
References (90)
- et al.
The prevention of adolescent depression
Psychiatric Clinics of North America
(2011) - et al.
Mental health problems and help-seeking behavior among college students
Journal of Adolescent Health
(2010) - et al.
Reliability and validity of an Arabic version of Hamilton depression scale in an Egyptian University student sample
Comprehensive Psychiatry
(2012) - et al.
Socioeconomic determinants of psychological well-being: the role of income, income change, and income sources during the course of 29 years
Annals of Epidemiology
(2008) - et al.
Epidemiology of depression in primary care. Special section: developing guidelines for treating depressive disorders in the primary care setting
General Hospital Psychiatry
(1992) - et al.
Validity of the brief patient health questionnaire mood scale (PHQ-9) in the general population
General Hospital Psychiatry
(2006) - et al.
Prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders in medical students. Transversal study in medical students in the Saint-Joseph University of Beirut
Encephale
(2006) - et al.
Depression in college: depressive symptoms and personality factors in Beijing and Hong Kong college freshmen
Comprehensive Psychiatry
(2008) - et al.
Gender differences in depression in 25 European countries after eliminating measurement bias in the CES-D
Social Science Research
(2010) - et al.
Depression in Asian–American and Caucasian undergraduate students
Journal of Affective Disorders
(2010)
One-month prevalence of depression and other DSM-IV disorders among young adults
Psychological Medicine
The epidemiology of major depressive episodes: results from the International Consortium of Psychiatric Epidemiology (ICPE) surveys
International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research
Gender differences in depression. Epidemiological findings from the European DEPRES I and II studies
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
Prevalence of depression, its correlates among students, and its effect on health-related quality of life in a Turkish university
Upsala Journal of Medical Sciences
Depressive disorders in Europe: prevalence figures from the ODIN study
British Journal of Psychiatry
Depression prevalence and related factors in Iranian students
Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences
Depression and anxiety in developing countries
The Lancet
Mental health of college students and their non-college-attending peers: results from the national epidemiologic study on alcohol and related conditions
Archives of General Psychiatry
Basic epidemiology
The Carroll rating scale for depression, development, reliability and validation
British Journal of Psychiatry
Investigation of university students' depression
Eurasian Journal of Educational Research
Symptoms, depression, and coping behaviors of university students
Taehan Kanho Hakhoe Chi
Depression, suicidality and alcohol abuse among medical and business students
Irish Medical Journal
Stress and depression among medical students: a cross-sectional study
Medical Education
Psychiatric disorder in a birth cohort of young adults: prevalence, comorbidity, clinical significance, and new case incidence from ages 11–21
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
The length of responses to open-ended questions: a comparison of online and paper questionnaires in terms of a mode effect
Social Science Computer Review
Item non-response rates: a comparison of online and paper questionnaires
International Journal of Social Research Methodology
Ethnicity and sex as correlates of depression symptoms in a Canadian university sample
International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Systematic review of publication bias in studies on publication bias
BMJ
Systematic review of depression, anxiety, and other indicators of psychological distress among U.S. and Canadian medical students
Academic Medicine
Prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality among university students
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
Epidemiological aspects of depression among Assiut University students
Assiut Medical Journal
The Zagazig depression scale manual
Depression, desperation, and suicidal ideation in college students: results from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention College screening project at Emory University
Depress and Anxiety
Assessing student mental health at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Academic Medicine
Depressive symptoms in medical students and residents: a multischool study
Academic Medicine
Changes in the prevalence of major depression in an Australian community sample between 1998 and 2008
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
Current depression among adults – United States, 2006 and 2008
MMWR
Depression and work performance: an ecological study using web-based screening
Occupational Medicine
Dimensions of alexithymia and their relationships to anxiety and depression
Journal of Personality Assessment
The impact of depression on the academic productivity of university students
Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics
Statistical package for social science
Establishing the reliability and validity of the Zagazig depression scale in a UK student population: an online pilot study
BMC Psychiatry
Analysis of an Egyptian study on the socioeconomic distribution of depressive symptoms among undergraduates
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Depression and suicide
Journal of the Korean Medical Association
Cited by (1067)
Evaluation of metabolomics-based urinary biomarker models for recognizing major depression disorder and bipolar disorder
2024, Journal of Affective DisordersDepression and lifestyle among university students: A one-year follow-up study
2024, European Journal of PsychiatryHow do setting-level changes in universities affect mental health and wellbeing? A systematic mixed studies review
2024, Mental Health and Prevention