Abstract
Mental health problems are common among students in higher education all over the world, so identifying those who are at higher risk would allow the targeted provision of help. Our goal was to develop an assessment tool to identify students at risk for vulnerable mental health status. This tool was created from the 12-item General Health Questionnaire and Antonovsky’s abbreviated sense of coherence scale and was tested to distinguish between those with high or low mental resilience. Predictive ability was characterized by likelihood ratios taking the Beck Depression Inventory and perceived health as references. One-quarter (95% CI 21.1% to 29.7%) of the students had been in vulnerable mental health characterized by low sense of coherence and high distress, whereas 28.4% (95% CI 24.2% to 33.1%) seemed resilient, having high sense of coherence and low distress. The high negative predictive value of the assessment tool reliably identified resilient students in comparison with both the Beck Depression Inventory (98.6%) and perceived health status (83.9%). Use of the assessment tool is recommended for students to distinguish between those at decreased and increased risk in terms of mental health. Mental health services should be offered to students at higher risk.
Highlights
Adulthood is a critical period in terms of developing the habits, self-image and social relations that are characteristic of individuals in adult life
A total of 412 of the potentially eligible 515 students were present at the time of the data collection and all of them agreed to participate in the study
All three courses were dominated by females, but their proportion was significantly lower among public health students (83.5%) compared to the two other groups
Summary
Adulthood is a critical period in terms of developing the habits, self-image and social relations that are characteristic of individuals in adult life. Three-fourths of all lifetime mental disorders start by the mid-20s, and the median age for substance disorders falls between 18 and 29 years of age [1]. Almost half of college-age youth had a psychiatric disorder according to an USA study, the most prevalent being some type of anxiety disorder. While the adjusted prevalence of substance use between college students and their non-college peers was no different, the former were significantly less likely to receive treatment for alcohol and drug use disorders compared to their peers not in college [2]. Studies from countries other than the USA support the notion that college students have a higher burden of mental distress [4] compared to their
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