Volume 27, Issue 134, April 2023

Comparison of depression and its associated risk factors between medical and non-medical students

Haytham Mahmoud¹, Khalid Aloufi², Abdullah A Alkurdi^3♦, Abdelrahman S Ghonimy³, Abdulilah F Hamdan³, Abdullah A Alsharif³, Abdullah M Al-Otaibi³, Abdulaziz M Alsaif³, Lujain A Aldarsi³, Mohammad Sanousi³

¹Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Al-Rayan Colleges, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwara, Saudi Arabia
²Resident Psychiatry, Specialized Psychiatric Hospital, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwara, Saudi Arabia
³College of Medicine, Medical Student, Al-Rayan Colleges, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwara, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
College of Medicine, Medical Student, Al-Rayan Colleges, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwara, Saudi Arabia
ORCID: 0000-0002-2932-1030

ABSTRACT

Background: Psychiatric illnesses have abnormal thoughts, feelings and behaviors. According to the 2019 Global Burden of Disease research, mental diseases remain one of the top ten leading sources of burden throughout the world. Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health problems among college students. Depression is a mental illness marked by persistent sadness and loss of interest. Depression affects around 7-9% of college students and can present much earlier in life. Aim: The primary objective of our research is to compare depression among medical and non-medical students in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwara. The secondary objectives are to explore the risk factors associated with depression and whether being medical or non-medical can contribute to the difference in the risk factors. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among 386 students, divided into medical background students (n=241) and non-medical students (n-145); all participants signed a consent form and offered a DASS (Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Scales) survey, including 21 questions to be filled out. Results: Across the overall sample of participants, most participants have reported normal DASS feelings regardless of their background, while anxiety was the highest among severe DASS reports, there was a significantly different association between DASS and GPA score, same as for the DASS outcomes between medical and non-medical; however, there were non-significant different either between gender, marital status and seniority level. Conclusion: In conclusion, depression among students was influenced by several factors, including educational background and academic level of students.

Keywords: Depression, GPA, DASS, medical, non-medical, male, female

Medical Science, 2023, 27, e187ms2963

PDF

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v27i134/e187ms2963

Published: 06 April 2023