Depression among tertiary education students in a developing country

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of depression among students at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus over the period 2014–2015. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: A cross-sectional study utilizing convenience sampling was executed between January and May 2015. A self-administered questionnaire based on the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale-Revised (CESD-R) was formulated by the addition of demographic and other variables and was distributed to a total of 1020 undergraduate students at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine. The acquired data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows 8. RESULTS: With a response rate of 95.2%, the study revealed the overall prevalence of depression to be 39.8%, with 39.3% of non-medical students and 40.2% of medical students being depressed (95%CI). The factors statistically associated with depression were religion (p = 0.013), smoking (p < 0.001), alcohol consumption (p < 0.001), illicit drug use (p = 0.008) and being previously treated for depression (p < 0.001). More than two-thirds (69.5%) of respondents thought that they could recognize the symptoms of personal depression; however, 53.5% of them misdiagnosed themselves as not being depressed (95%CI). A quarter (24.9%) of respondents believed there is a stigma attached to seeking help for depression while 37.8% of them were unaware of the available counseling resources (95%CI). CONCLUSION: The overall prevalence of depression at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus during the 2014–2015 period was found to be 39.8%. The factors associated with depression were alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, smoking, religion and a previous diagnosis of depression.