High proportion and factors associated with depression in medical students at a university, Honduras

Abstract

Introduction: Depression is a common mental disorder and a leading cause of disability worldwide. Objective: To determine the prevalence of depression and related factors in medical students. Methods: quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive study with association analysis, in students from second to seventh year of medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, National Autonomous University of Honduras. The universe was 3928 students. The sampling was non-probabilistic by convenience; 282 students answered the evaluation instruments. The Beck Depression scale measured and classified the degree of depression. Results: The proportion of depression was 74% (CI 95%, 69-79). Among the participants, 31% (87) students have suicidal ideation and 6% (17) have attempted suicide. Factors that increased the risk of depression: being single 96.1% (OR = 4.0, CI 95%, 1.5-10.7); being economically dependent 82% (OR = 2.1, CI 95%, 1.1-3.8); female sex 68% (OR = 3.2, CI 95%, 1.8-5.6); having a family history of depression 52% (OR = 2. 0, CI 95%, 1.2-3.6); having suffered from violence 45% (OR = 3.1, CI 95%, 1.6-5.8); being affected by violence 32% (OR = 4.4, CI 95%, 1.9-10.2); having been diagnosed with depression 21% (OR = 9.2, CI 95%, 2.2-39.0). Discussion: The results of this study show a high proportion of depression in this population, in comparison with similar studies that report 9.3- 55.9%. This should be an alarm to expand research and generate strategies to prevent depression.