Depression causes among medical students at KUMS: A quantitative study

Abstract

Depression is an important contributor to the global burden of diseases that affect people around the world regardless of their social status and level of education. Students are more vulnerable to this condition as a result of the high level of study demand and performance pressure, especially medical students, who are more prone to extreme stress. Despite this, there have been no recent, multicentre, quantassessing medical students’ greatest stressors. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore and identify the main causes of depression among medical students at Kabul University while examining corresponding data on depression among medical students. 129 medical students at Kabul Medical Sciences were assessed using an online questionnaire form. There are approximately 3000 students currently studying medicine at KUMS from the 1st year to the practical period for MD and DMD. Approximately 400 questionnaires were distributed among the students. 129 students filled out and returned the questionnaires either by hand or by email. 52.8% of students said that the contents of the university’s books cause depression. The total percentage of depression among the medical students was found to be 65.5%. Significance with gender was seen, but no change with age was seen. The study showed that the prevalence of depression among Kabul University of Medical Science students is due to the university’s curriculum. Therefore, attempts should be made to reform the curriculum and teaching methods of the instructors by providing a comprehensive educational program at the university that eliminates the causes and factors that have a direct relationship with educational stressors among medical students. Future research should seek to identify other stressors and suggest possible methods of eradicating them.