Depression and its determinants among adolescents in Jimma town, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Objectives To determine the prevalence and socio-demographic and parental-related factors of depression among school adolescents in Jimma town, southwest Ethiopia. Methods Using a cross-sectional survey, 546 school adolescents were screened for depression using the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) from five randomly selected public and private schools. Oslo social support scale, adverse childhood experience tool, and socio-demographic questionnaire were used to gather data on risk factors. Linear regression analysis was used, and unstandardized beta (β) coefficients with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported to declare statistical significance. Results A total of 546 adolescents participated in the study, with a response rate of 97.3%. The mean (±SD) age of participants was 16.8 ± 1.3 years. The majority (81%) of the adolescents were attending day classes at public schools. The prevalence of depression was found to be 28% using the patient health questionnaire. Based on the PHQ-9 depression severity scale, 18.5% and 8.2% of the adolescent had moderate and moderate to severe depression while 1.3% had severe depression. In the final multivariate linear regression analysis, it was found that sex, rural residence, low social support, being in higher grade level, and adverse childhood experience were found to be independently associated with a higher score of depression. Conclusion One in three adolescents was found to have a depressive syndrome. We recommend schools to integrate school mental health service that contains routine screening and intervention services. Moreover, efforts are needed to sensitize and educate the communities on child protection, social support, and safeguarding to effectively tackle the magnitude of adolescent depression.

Pattern of Depressive Illness among School Age Children Presenting at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital

“…Female adolescents and adults are said to be more prone to depression compared to their male counterparts because of hormonal fluctuations related to their reproductive functioning, socioeconomic factors including poverty, gender-based violence and sexual exploitation (Hyde et al, 2008;Oderinde et al, 2018). However, we found no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of depression between males and females in this present study, contrasting with the reports of the researchers who found female preponderance in the prevalence of depression (Meitei & Singh 2019;Hussien et al, 2017;Girma et al, 2021) and those who found male preponderance (Naushad et al, 2014;Subhashini et al, 2018). However, our finding agrees with the report of Chen et al in China and Oderinde et al in Western Nigeria who also found no association between gender and being depressed (Oderinde et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2013).…”

Prevalence of Depression and Its’ Risk Factors among Higher Secondary School Students

“…Sixty eight percent of the adolescents had high self esteem whereas 8% were thinking to solve their problems by themselves. Similar findings were reported in few studies [16,17].…”

The Association of Abuse and Depression With Suicidal Ideation in Chinese Adolescents: A Network Analysis

“…Therefore, future work should be focused on laying down unified criteria to facilitate the comparison of results. We also found that the prevalence of depression was also higher than previously reported in the United States (8.7–11.3%) ( 52 ) and lower than that in Ethiopia (28%) ( 53 ) and India (25%) ( 54 ). Research shows that adolescents in Confucian countries in Asia have higher levels of depression than those in European countries ( 55 ), which may be explained by a higher prevalence of abuse.…”