The Prevalence of Depression among Female High School Students in Bojnurd, North Khorasan Province, Iran, 2016

Due to the high prevalence of depression in modern societies, particularly among female adolescents, and high sensitivity of this age, the current study aimed at determining the prevalence of depression among female high school students in Bojnurd.
The current cross sectional study was conducted on 384 female high school students in Bojnurd, North Khorasan Province, Iran in 2016. The data collection tool was a 2-part questionnaire; first part included demographic information and the second part was the Beck depression inventory. The questionnaire was completed by the students voluntarily. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 20 using descriptive statistics, the Man-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and Spearman correlation tests.
The mean age of the students was 16.1 ± 1.03 years; of the total 384 subjects, 5.1% reported parental divorce and 10.1% parental addiction. Most of the students (50.8%) were educated in public schools. The results of the current study showed that 43.7% of the study subjects had mild, 15.4% moderate, and 1.8% severe depression. A significant relationship was observed between the depression and age, grade, type of school (private/public), and parental divorce in the current study.
Based on the results of the present study, the prevalence of depression is relatively high among female high school students in Bojnurd. It is recommended to take necessary measures in order to promote self-esteem, as well as life and communication skills at family, school, and society levels in adolescents.