A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Depression Prevalence amongst Nigerian Students Pursuing Higher Education

Abstract

Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders currently going undiagnosed in many developing countries, including Nigeria. Stigmatization, inadequate financial resources, poor healthcare infrastructure for accurate diagnosis, and low research attention are contributing factors to the prevalence of depression among youths in West Africa. This study estimated the prevalence of depression among higher education students in Nigeria. Data was extracted and examined from 1225 publications by three independent reviewers. To minimize bias, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality guidelines was used to assess the data. Pooling of logit-transformed data was done using a generalized linear mixed-effects model, while restricted maximum likelihood was used to estimate between-study variance (τ2). Knapp-Hartung adjustments were included for calculating the confidence intervals around pooled effects, and R was used to calculate pooled estimates of depression prevalence. The risk factors of depression were examined by subgroup analyses and random-effect meta-regression models. Egger’s regression was used to check for publication bias in small-sampled studies with high prevalence estimates. Mean age of students across the 18 studies ranged from 19.09 to 26.3 years, with sample sizes ranging from 81 to 1482 participants. The pooled depression prevalence across studies was 26% (95% CI 0.18, 0.36) with high heterogeneity (I2 = 97%, τ2 = 0.9512). The subgroup analyses showed that higher education students in the Northwestern region of Nigeria have the highest depression prevalence (45.9%), followed by the South-South region (33%), Southeastern (22.1%), and Southwestern region (18.1%). Our findings show that depression among higher education students in Nigeria is highly prevalent. A significant proportion of higher education students in Nigeria are depressed. The factors contributing to the high depression prevalence, particularly among higher education students in the Northwestern region of Nigeria, should be investigated.