Depressive symptoms and associated factors in university students of the south of Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1983-652X.2018.4.31568Keywords:
depression, mental health, students, cross-sectional studies, prevalence.Abstract
Objective: To measure the prevalence of depressive symptoms and associated factors in university students.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 892 university students from a private institution in southern Brazil. The data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire, with the outcome being depressive symptoms. The descriptive and crude analysis was performed, and prevalence ratios (PR) were calculated with respective 95% confidence intervals (CI). The adjusted analysis was performed by Poisson regression, where the final model was constructed from the variables with p-value≤0.20 in the crude analysis. Statistical analyzes were run on SPSS Data 23.0 and Stata 11.0 softwares.
Results: The mean age was 24.5 years (±6.3), predominantly female sex (63.2%). Regarding the outcome, in general, 30.8% presented depressive symptoms. The final analysis showed an association between the outcome and the female sex (PR 1.39, 95% CI 1.09-1.76, p=0.006), being smoker or ex-smoker (PR 1.21; 95% CI 1.06-1.38; p=0.004), diets for weight loss 5 times or more during the last year (PR 1.53, 95% CI 1.18-1.99, p=0.003), body dissatisfaction (PR 1.67, 95% CI 1.21-2.30, p=0.002) and unsatisfactory self-esteem (PR 2.61, 95% CI 2.14-3.18, p<0.001).
Conclusion: The general high prevalence of depressive symptoms (30.8%) identified in the academic population is similar to those found in national and international studies. The main factors associated with the outcome are being female, smoker/ex-smoker, diets for weight loss more than 5 times in the last year, body dissatisfaction and unsatisfactory self-esteem.
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