Prevalence of depression among new registered students in Birjand University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2009-2010

Depression is one of the most common emotional phenomenon in the current century and its prevalence among the students is 20-61%. Initiation of education in university is a critical period of every student's life. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of depression among new admitted students in Birjand University of Medical Sciences.

In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study, all of the students that were admitted and registered in the academic year in 2009-2010, were enrolled with census method. Data were collected by a questionnaire with two parts. Demographic information was recorded in the first part and the students responded the 21 questions of depression Beck test in the second part. Data were analyzed by means of SPSS version 11.5 at the significant level of P<0.05.

Totally, 231 questionnaires were completed. Twenty eight students (12.1%) had experienced some degree of depression. Of these, 23 people (10%) had mild and 5 students (2.1%) had moderate depression. No case of severe depression was found. A significant correlation was observed between the prevalence of depression among students and the level of family income (P=0.02) and jobs of mothers (P=0.03).

In spite of the low prevalence of depression among the new registered students in Birjand University of Medical Sciences, and the observed depression in students of families with low incomes, decreasing economic problems and counseling may prevent possible progress of depression during the education period.