Gender Distribution Of Depression Among Undergraduate Medical Students By Using PHQ-9 Scale

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the depression on different stages (mild, moderate and severe) among undergraduate students of pre-clinical & clinical settings on the basis of gender. Study Design and Setting: The cross sectional study was carried out among undergraduate medical students of Bahria University medical and dental College (BUMDC) Karachi from September 2017 – December 2017. Methodology: The participants were 125 medical students of first year MBBS and 125 students of final year MBBS which were labeled as pre-clinical and clinical groups respectively. The survey instrument used was PHQ-9 scale. This scale divides depression into mild, moderate and severe categories with the help of scores. Percentage of students in different levels of depression was calculated in both the groups. Results: Mild depression was experienced more (39%) in pre-clinical medical students and (32%) in clinical students. On the other hand clinical medical students showed an upward trend for “severe depression” (19%) as compare to preclinical students (6%) as showed in Table 1. Gender based comparison was done between male and female students in pre-clinical and clinical groups separately. Strikingly, the results showed that females were more depressed than males in both cohorts. Conclusion: It was concluded that severe depression was equal in males and females in the preclinical group as compared to clinical group. Gender based comparison showed that severe depression was higher in females than males of clinical years whereas mild and moderate depression was also more frequents in females of clinical years.