Prevalence of Depression amongst Students of Shaheed Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

Objective: University students account for human resource of each society and will make the future of their country. Psychological disturbances such as depression and hopelessness can affect daily life and scholastic process of university students. The authors intended to determine the prevalence of depression amongst students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Methods: Fifteen percent of the total population of students of the mentioned university [254 subjects consisted of 73 (28.7%) males and 181 (71.3%) females] were selected by stratified random sampling method. The tools of enquiry were interview and Beck Depression Inventory. The association of demographic factors such as sex, marital status, residence place, and educational characteristics like course and mean of educational scores with levels of depression were studied. Results: Half of the students (50%) were suffering from different grades of depression; 35.4% mild, 13.4% moderate and only 1.2% were in the sever grade of depression. Mean pre-university score, National University Entrance Examination score, interest rate of the students to the selected university course, lose of friends and relatives and important events in their life were those factors which were significantly associated with depression. Conclusion: A considerable number of the students had depression. Specific attention to the factors which showed significant association with the presence of depression should be made.