Frequency and Correlation between Depression, Anxiety, and Stress among Nursing Students

Abstract

Background: The nursing profession has been identified as an increasingly challenging profession. Depression, anxiety, and stress have been established considerably among nursing students that have a negative impact on personal and as well as education. Objectives: To determine the frequency and correlation between depression, anxiety, stress and among nursing students. Identify the association of socio-demographic variables with depression, anxiety, and stress among nursing students. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was accomplished at two public sector nursing colleges in Islamabad. The duration of the study was 4 months from October 2021 to January 2022. Students who are enrolled in general nursing and BS nursing programs of both genders were invited to participate in the study. The calculated sample size was 355. Non-probability convenience sampling method was utilized to access study participants. DASS-21 questionnaire was used for screening depression, anxiety, and stress. A Chi-square test was applied to identify the association of demographic variables with depression, anxiety, and stress. Pearson correlation was also used to determine the correlation between depression, anxiety, and stress. P-value ≤0.05 was considered a level of significance. Results: A total of 355 participants were included, the majority of them 79.4% were from the age group 18 – 23 years. Most of the participants 80% were female and 89% were unmarried. In this study, the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress was reported at 44.2%, 64.20%, and 42.3% respectively. Educational programs and family history of psychiatric disorders were found to be statistically significant for depression. Moreover, gender, year of study, and educational program exhibited significant anxiety. In addition, years of study, educational program and residency were also established as significant with stress. Conclusion: It is concluded from the current study that nursing students were facing significant levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. The anxiety levels were higher in participants followed by depression and stress. Moreover, there was a significant positive strong correlation between depression, anxiety, and stress.