Abstract:

Background: Depression is a common cause of morbidity but prevalence levels among Tanzania university students are poorly understood. A better understanding of depression and its correlates is essential in planning for appropriate interventions in this population group.

Method: This was cross sectional study conducted on November 2018. A random sample of 353 medical students at Catholic university of health and allied sciences, 190 male (54%) and 163 female (46%), were enrolled. A self-administered questionnaire was used to record socio-demographic variable. Depressive symptoms were measured using a nine question patient health questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9). PHQ-9 has a total of 27 points and scores greater than 4 was considered to have depressive symptoms.

Results: A total of 353 students were eligible and enrolled in the study. Male students were 190 (54%) and female students were 163 (46%). More than half of them were not married (93%). 71.4% of the sample was sponsored by the students loan board and 83 students (23.5%) were self-sponsored. Of the sample, 41.1% were screened positive for depressive symptoms. Luckily no students had severe depressive symptoms. 41 students (11.6%) had thoughts to better being dead or hurting themselves.

Limitations: This was a cross sectional study relying on self-report of symptoms and could therefore be inaccurate and self-biased some could not give true answers as they took it as just a student’s research which may not intend to directly help their condition.

Conclusion: Depression occurs in a significant number of students. Appropriate interventions should be set up in higher institutions of learning to detect and treat these disorders paying particular attention to those at risk.