Mediating Effect of Sleep Disorder Between Low Mental Health Literacy and Depressive Symptoms Among Medical Students: The Roles of Gender and Grade.

Jie Hu,Rui Wang,Yanni Xue,Yehuan Sun,Shichen Zhang,Danlin Li,Jun Wang,Zhixian Zhang,Yuhui Wan,Liyuan Jia,Xianbing Song,Jun Fang,Xuexue Huang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.818295

Jie Hu, Rui Wang + Show 11 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.818295

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Abstract

ObjectiveIn this study, we aimed to disentangle the mediating effect of sleep disorder between mental health literacy (MHL) and depressive symptoms in Chinese medical students, especially focusing on the impact of gender and grade.MethodsPooled longitudinal data of 5,504 medical students was collected between November 2019 and June 2020 to assess the MHL, sleep disorder and mental health of medical students in Anhui province, China. Mediation analyses were tested by using bootstrapping procedures.ResultsSleep disorder were negatively correlated with adequate MHL, but positively correlated with depressive symptoms. The relationships between MHL and depressive symptoms were mediated by sleep disorder in total samples and the indirect effect accounted for 13.59% of the total effect. However, the ratio was 20.82% in female students, whereas no mediating effect was found in the male students. Moreover, the ratio was found higher in freshmen (15.11%) than that in sophomores (11.56%).ConclusionImproving the sleep disorder by enhancing MHL is an effective way to reduce depressive symptoms in Chinese medical students. Further investigations elaborately considered by using more gender-balanced population with higher grade and lower level of education.

Highlights

Gender and grade differences in descriptive statistics related to different dimensions of mental health literacy (MHL), sleep disorder and depressive symptoms were presented in (Table 2)
Spearman correlation analysis among these key variables were in expected directions
Our study adds to the literature by emphasizing that sleep disorder is the mediator between MHL and depressive symptoms and this mediating effect is varied by gender and grade

Summary

Introduction

In China, the weighted prevalence of any mental disorder (excluding dementia) was 9.3%, and depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and alcohol use disorders were the common class of disorders [2]. Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease [1]. Depressive and anxiety disorders will continue to be the major contributors to mental, neurological, and substance use disorder burden, accounting for about 39% of the populations in China [3]. Many mental disorders relate to poor mental health literacy (MHL). Those youth who have poor MHL levels are more reluctant to seek help, leading to worse health outcome [5]. That MHL is related to depression is an important concept and adequate health literacy (HL) is helpful for the prevention, early diagnosis of depression, as well as to improve the prognosis of depression through interventions [6]

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Discussion

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