Garba Bashiru, Mohamed Samiro Ali, Mohamed Maria Mowlid, Asowe Hodo Aideed, Dirie Najib Isse, Umar Yushau, Mohamoud Jamal Hassan, Adam Mohamed Hussein, Hassan Jihaan, Orey Fartun Abdullahi Hassan, Omar Abdullahi Abdirahman, Mohamed Ibrahim Abdullahi, Ahmed Mohamed Mustaf, Moalim Samira Abdullahi
Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, SIMAD University, Mogadishu, Somalia.
Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.
BMC Psychiatry. 2025 Feb 1;25(1):89. doi: 10.1186/s12888-025-06553-5.
Depression among undergraduate health science students is increasingly recognized as a significant public health issue globally. These students face immense academic pressure, often leading to stress and mental exhaustion, particularly for students studying in a humanitarian crisis situation. However, there is a scarcity of information in this regard in higher education institutions in Somalia. Hence, this investigation was conducted to assess the prevalence of depression and its correlates health science students in Somalia.
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 321 health science students from some universities in Mogadishu, Somalia. The data was collected from students studying medicine, nursing and midwifery, laboratory science and public health at SIMAD university, Banadir university, Mogadishu university and Jamhuriya university, all located in Mogadishu. Simple random sampling based on class list was used to select the participants and a web-based self-administered Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to screen for depression. The collected data were cleaned and checked for completeness before exporting into SPSS version 27 Statistical software for analysis, where descriptive statistics as well as logistic regression analysis was done to determine the independent predictors of the outcome variable. Significant association was determined at a 95% confidence interval and p-value < 0.05.
The prevalence of depression among the students was 58.6%. A total of 41.5% (133/321) of the participants were free from depression (Normal), while 30.8% had mild depression, 27.1% had moderate depression and 0.6% had severe depression. Analysis of the association between the sociodemographic variables and depressive state of the participant showed statistical significance (p-value = 0.045) for course of study. Students studying nursing and midwifery had the highest case of depression with 68.6% (59/86), followed by public health 66.7% (30/45), laboratory science 52.3% (34/65), and medicine having the least number of depressed students with 52.0% students (65/125). Similarly, gender of students was also found to be statistically significant (p-value = 0.001) with female students having 65% depression which is 41.1% of the total students studied.
The prevalence of depression among health science students in Mogadishu was high and positively associated with gender, having trouble with authorities, emotional problems, as well as experience of sexual abuse or violence. Hence, routine screening and monitoring of students' mental health state on the campus and providing mental health services is necessary to address this growing problem.
本科健康科学专业学生的抑郁症日益被视为全球重大公共卫生问题。这些学生面临巨大的学业压力，常导致压力和精神疲惫，尤其是在人道主义危机情况下学习的学生。然而，索马里高等教育机构在这方面的信息匮乏。因此，开展这项调查以评估索马里健康科学专业学生抑郁症的患病率及其相关因素。
对来自索马里摩加迪沙一些大学的321名健康科学专业学生进行了横断面研究。数据收集自位于摩加迪沙的西马德大学、巴纳迪尔大学、摩加迪沙大学和贾姆胡里亚大学学习医学、护理与助产学、实验室科学和公共卫生的学生。基于班级名单采用简单随机抽样来选择参与者，并使用基于网络的自我管理患者健康问卷（PHQ - 9）来筛查抑郁症。收集到的数据在导出到SPSS 27版统计软件进行分析之前进行了清理和完整性检查，在该软件中进行了描述性统计以及逻辑回归分析以确定结果变量的独立预测因素。在95%置信区间和p值<0.05时确定显著关联。
学生中抑郁症的患病率为58.6%。共有41.5%（133/321）的参与者没有抑郁症（正常），而30.8%有轻度抑郁症，27.1%有中度抑郁症，0.6%有重度抑郁症。对社会人口统计学变量与参与者抑郁状态之间关联的分析显示，学习课程具有统计学意义（p值 = 0.045）。学习护理与助产学的学生抑郁症病例数最高，为68.6%（59/86），其次是公共卫生专业，为66.7%（30/45），实验室科学专业为52.3%（34/65），医学专业抑郁症学生人数最少，为52.0%（65/125）。同样，学生性别也具有统计学意义（p值 = 0.001），女生抑郁症患病率为65%，占所研究学生总数的41.1%。
摩加迪沙健康科学专业学生中抑郁症患病率很高，且与性别、与当局有矛盾、情绪问题以及性虐待或暴力经历呈正相关。因此，有必要在校园内对学生心理健康状况进行常规筛查和监测，并提供心理健康服务以解决这一日益严重的问题。
