Prevalence, Associated Factors, and Factors Influencing Treatment of Depression Among Medical Students in a Hospital in Southern Thailand
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Abstract
Background: Depression is an important mental problem for medical students globally. It affects academic performance, quality of patient care, patient safety, and may lead to suicidal ideation.
Objective: To investigate the prevalence, associated factors, and factors influencing treatment of depression in medical students.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, fourth- and sixth-year medical students were included 96 participants in December 2022. The 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to assess depression. Potential factors and the associations between potential factors and depression were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Medical students diagnosed with depression were interviewed to explore factors that affected treatment and facilitated the seeking of proper treatment.
Results: Among 96 participants, there were 91.67% (88/96) survey respondents and revealed 42% (37/88) of the prevalence rate of depression. Associated factors were female (Adjusted OR, 11.36; 95% CI, 2.21 - 46.51), major clinical rotations (Adjusted OR, 6.89; 95% CI, 1.82 - 26.09), and insufficient knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic (Adjusted OR, 6.21; 95% CI, 1.58 - 23.81). Nine medical students diagnosed with depression had not visited a mental health clinic. The reasons for not seeking help were the inappropriate of mental health clinic services.
Conclusions: The prevalence of depression in this current study was 42%. Associated factors were female, major clinical rotations, and insufficient knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All articles are distributed by the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) license. Copyright © 2024 by the authors. Licensee RMJ, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
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