Anxiety and Depression among Medical Students of Karachi During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression among medical students of Bahria University Health Sciences (BUHS) Study Design and Setting: Cross-Sectional survey conducted from January to June 2021 at BUHS, Karachi Methodology: Two hundred and sixty one medical students (79 male and 182 female), were assessed for anxiety and depression using Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) respectively. Chi Square test was used to check the association of anxiety and depression with gender and year of study. P-value =0.05 was considered significant. Results: Out of 261 participants, 76.8% of medical students had anxiety. Among them 21.1% had mild, 24.5% had moderate and 27.2% had severe anxiety. 83.5% of students had depression, of which 24.9% met the criteria for mild, 20.7% for moderate, 21.1% for moderate-severe and 16.9% students for severe depression. Chi Square test indicated significant associations between anxiety and gender, with 29.7% of female students having severe anxiety as compared to 21.5% of male students; and between depression and gender, with 24.1% male students having moderate depression as compared to 19.2% of female students. Both depression and anxiety were more prevalent among first year students with 31.7% students having depression and 27.5% having anxiety. Conclusion: Anxiety and depression were more prevalent among first year students with anxiety being more prevalent in female and depression being more prevalent in male students.