Abstract
Today, mental health problem has become a grave concern in Malaysia. According to the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2017, one in five people in Malaysia suffers from depression, two in five from anxiety, and one in ten from stress. Higher education students are also at risk of being part of the affected community. The increased data size without proper management and analysis, and the lack of counsellors, are compounding the issue. Therefore, this paper presents on identifying factors in mental health problems among selected higher education students. This study aims to classify students into different categories of mental health problems, which are stress, depression, and anxiety, using machine learning algorithms. The data is collected from students in a higher education institute in Kuala Terengganu. The algorithms applied are Decision Tree, Neural Network, Support Vector Machine, Naïve Bayes, and logistic regression. The most accurate model for stress, depression, and anxiety is Decision Tree, Support Vector Machine, and Neural Network, respectively.
Highlights
Identifying the factors of mental health problems among students has become a challenging task
This paper presents mental health prediction models using machine learning in higher education institution
We start by elaborating on the mental health problems and contributing factors among higher education students, and predicts the issues in three categories, namely stress, depression, and anxiety
Summary
Identifying the factors of mental health problems among students has become a challenging task. The factors can be influenced by biological, psychological, and environmental issues. Diagnosis can be tricky and complex as symptoms and factors are often similar; this can lead the doctor to misdiagnose [1], and the wrong treatment being administered to the patient, jeopardizing the patient’s psychological conditions, both emotionally and behaviourally. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health problems or mental disorders as the combination of abnormal thoughts, emotions, behaviour in daily activities, and relationships with others [2]. The presence of machine learning would help in the extraction of knowledge and may improve the quality of medical practices [3]. Mental Health Problem in Higher Education System In Malaysia
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