ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND: Depression is the most common mental disorder. It’s a major cause of disability across the world, can affect everyone and is not an exclusive disease. Globally, approximately 350 million people worldwide are affected by depression a common psychological disorder. The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of clinical depression and associated factors among students of College of business education (CBE) in Mwanza, Tanzania.

METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study involving 384 CBE college students was conducted from May to July 2022. Data was collected by using semi structured questionnaires the questionnaire similar to the beck depression inventory will be used to screen for depression and associated factors among CBE college students, and snowball sampling procedure was used to obtain the required sample of participation. Data analysis was done using the Statistical package for social sciences software (SPSS).

RESULTS: The mean age of the respondents was 20.82±1.698 years. The prevalence of depression was 162(42.2%), from those depressed; 73 (19%), 54 (14.1%) and 35 (9.1%) had mild, moderate and severe depression respectively. Generally, the awareness on clinical depression among respondents was found to be low. According to this study Age and course of study were the factors found to be significantly associated with depression among CBE college students.

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of depression in this study was relatively high nearly to half of participants were affected with depression. Therefore the college should Provide counselling and advice for students on the independent predictors of depression.