Major depressive episode among university students in Southern Brazil

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Depression is the leading cause of disability around the world, and it has been increasingly affecting young people. This study evaluates the prevalence and factors associated with major depression in university students, with emphasis on the influence of the academic field, chosen study area and the environment they are inserted. METHODS: A census of students who entered the university in the first semester of 2017 was held at a university in Southern Brazil. The outcome of major depressive episode was evaluated using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, considered when the individual had five or more depressive symptoms for at least one week. Its prevalence was estimated, and the associated factors were examined by the hierarchical multivariable analysis using the Poisson regression model. RESULTS: A total of 32% (95% confidence interval 29.9–34.2) of university students presented a major depressive episode, and the problem was more frequent among women (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.59); people aged 21 to 23 years (PR = 1.24); those with a family history of depression (PR = 1.27); minorities’ sexual orientation (homosexuals, PR = 1.64, and bisexuals, PR = 1.69); who lived with friends or colleagues (PR = 1.36); students in the area of applied social and human sciences (PR = 1.28), and linguistics, language and literature, and art (PR = 1.25). The worst academic performance (PR = 2.61), alcohol abuse (PR = 1.25), and illicit drug use (PR = 1.30) were also positively associated with major depressive episode. CONCLUSION: In addition to individual, family, and behavioral aspects, already described as risk factors for major depressive episodes in the general population, academic aspects also influence the occurrence of depression among university students. Considering the high prevalence of major depressive episode and its negative impact on health, public and institutional policies are necessary to focus on students’ mental health promotion and care.

Prevalence and Socio-Demographic, Academic, Health and Lifestyle Predictors of Illicit Drug/s Use among University Undergraduate Students in Finland

“…In terms of health variables, in the current study, students with high depressive symptoms were significantly more likely to report ever IDU (AOR 1.82, P = 0.004). We agree with others, where among university students in Brazil, IDU was positively associated with major depressive episode [ 101 ]; and having higher depressive symptoms score was associated with ever IDU among students in North Kosovo [ 102 ]. Others found that the presence of psychiatric disorders was positively associated with the extent of illicit substance use [ 93 ].…”

Prevalence of depression and its relationship with quality of life among university students in Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China

“…Depression was the dependent variable, while demographic and clinical variables that significantly associated with depression in univariate analysis were the independent variables. In addition, commonly reported associated factors of depression among university students, such as gender 42 , major subject 54 , family history of mental disorders 55 were entered as the independent variables.…”

Fatores associados aos transtornos depressivos em estudantes universitários da área de saúde: uma revisão integrativa

“…Dentre os hábitos prejudiciais está o consumo de álcool. Dos estudos analisados, em seis deles (Santangelo, 2018;Flesch et al, 2020;Piumatti, 2018;Hambisa, 2020;Tuyen, 2019;Ruisoto et al, 2016), esse hábito está associado significativamente a um risco aumentado de sintomas depressivos que pode ser atribuído à mudança no estilo de vida dos estudantes. Além do consumo de álcool, o tabagismo está associado com a diminuição da qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde dos estudantes universitários, resultando em níveis mais altos de sintomas depressivos (Milic et al, 2020).…”

“…Os alunos que fizeram o uso de substâncias ilícitas mostraram predisponência para a depressão (Piumatti, 2018). No estudo de Flesh et al 2020 Quanto ao sexo, diante dos dados analisados, as mulheres apresentam maior prevalência de depressão, sendo evidente que o sexo feminino está mais propenso ao desenvolvimento de sintomas depressivos (Santangelo, 2018;Hakami, 2018;Fernandes et al, 2018;Rossi et al, 2019;Lee, 2019;Nahas et al, 2019;Flesch et al, 2020). De acordo com Hakami, (2018) e Nahas et al (2019), as diferenças de gênero na prevalência de problemas de saúde mental podem ser explicadas por fatores psicossociais e biológicos, devido, por exemplo, à maior sensibilidade às relações interpessoais, bem como às alterações hormonais.…”

“…Os aspectos acadêmicos também influenciam a ocorrência de depressão entre os estudantes universitários e os sintomas depressivos permaneceram significativamente associados ao baixo desempenho acadêmico (Sibnath et al, 2016;Ngin et al, 2018;Flesch et al, 2020), à obtenção de notas indesejadas (Othman et al, 2019;Mboya et al, 2020;Gul et al, 2020), menor satisfação com a escolha acadêmica (Piumatti, 2018;Leão et al, 2018), além de não estar no curso escolhido como primeira opção (Leão et al, 2018) e à preocupação em encontrar um emprego (Othman et al, 2019). A maior prevalência de depressão pode reduzir a qualidade de https://textura.famam.com.br/textura v.14, n.2, 2020 vida do estudante, resultando em perda do controle pessoal, dificuldade na capacidade de aprendizagem consequentemente menor produtividade, diminuição do desempenho acadêmico e tentativa de suicídio (Dagnew, 2020).…”