Anxiety, depression and risk consumption of alcohol in a sample of university students

Abstract

The university student is vulnerable to the adverse effects of many stress factors that can lead to depressive symptoms, anxiety and alcohol abuse, causing an increase in the burden of illness in young people. The aim of the study was to measure depressive symptoms, anxiety levels, and harmful alcohol consumption within the student population of the University of Palermo. An online questionnaire was sent by e-mail to the 8500 students enrolled in the (ERSU) Regional Office for the Right to University Study's mailing list in Palermo. It was evaluated the severity of depressive symptoms through the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report, anxiety symptoms using the Beck Anxiety Inventory and risky consumption of alcohol by using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption test. From the test it was possible to get individual scores that allow you to evaluate the risk by associating each individual with a category. The obtained variables were analyzed by Pearson square test (χ 2). The questionnaire answered 1102 individuals, 756 females (68.60%), with an average age of 22 years (± 3.28). 13.52% of the sample have a risky consumption of alcohol. 22.14% showed moderate depressive symptoms and 12.16% had serious and very serious symptoms. Respectively, 19.69% and 7.53% have moderate and high levels of anxiety. As for depressive symptoms (χ2 (4)=31.58, p<0.001) and anxiety (χ2 (2)=20.71; p<0.001), the female gender is assigned to more relevant reference categories than males. There are no statistically significant differences of risky consumption of alcohol in terms of gender or type or length of course. An analysis of the data shows that anxiety, depression and alcoholism risk have a similar distribution in all degree courses. Female students are more vulnerable to anxiety and depression. Active public health planning and implementation of structural and organizational measures would be very effective in reducing alcohol consumption and promoting health.