1. Major depressive disorder in mexican medical students and risk factors: a longitudinal study.
- Author
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Heinze, G., Guízar Sánchez, D., Bernard, N., Romo Nava, F., and Tafoya, A.
- Subjects
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MEDICAL students , *MENTAL depression , *AT-risk students , *PSYCHOLOGICAL child abuse , *LONGITUDINAL method , *MULTIPLE regression analysis - Abstract
Introduction: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly prevalent in the general population and among medical students (MS). Risk factors of depression in MS are important to clarify. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and its changes during 5 years of medical school. Which are the factors associated with depressive symptomatology and how these factors change over time. Methods: A prospective, longitudinal observational study was conducted at the Medical School of the National University of Mexico, between 2012-2018. We included students who maintained their participation annually, completing the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the survey on socio-demographic variables in order to evaluate potential predictors, personal and academic characteristics and perceived academic difficulties. Results: The response rate was between 78-89%. 245 MS were evaluated longitudinally, 60.9% were women, 97.2% single, 96.5% lived with their family or partner and 71% received sufficient financial resources for living costs. For depression the prevalence ranged from 10.5-16.2% according to the academic year. The multiple logistic regression analysis per year showed that the history of emotional abuse in childhood (OR=1.89-3.11, p<0.05), anxiety levels (OR=1.85-2.97, p<0.05), poor financial resources (OR=3.11-4.54, p<0.05) and being female (OR=1.83-2.02, p<0.05) increase the risk of depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that personal factors (female, poor financial resources, anxiety and history of child abuse) are relevant for persistence of high score of PHQ-9. Medical schools need to identity students who have depressive symptoms and offer them, as early as possible, particularly when depression has been present over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020