title: Epidemiology of mental health problems in female students: a questionnaire survey.
abstract: Mental health as a state of well-being can be affected by gender. The present work aims to examine the mental health status in female students and recognize its affecting factors. A cross-sectional study on female students of Payame-Noor University in West Azerbaijan, Iran, was conducted among 1632 students. Data collection tools were the demographic data and the General Health Questionnaires (GHQ-28). The results show that 51.5% of the population under study were healthy and 48.5% have had mental disorders. Based on the social effects on the mental health of students, the correlations between age (p=0.15), location (p=0.29) and parental education (p=0.34) with general health status were assessed and there were no significant differences between them. However, birth order (p<0.002), marital status (p<0.001) and family income (p<0.000) had significant differences with regard to mental health status. This study indicates that 43.6% of students are suspected to have mental and physical disorders, and the most effective factor is the socioeconomic condition. The strong correlation between birth order, marital status, and family income and mental health disorders suggests the necessity to pay more attention to all these issues in all at-risk students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mokhtari
authors.forename: Somayeh Farhang
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Dehghan
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asghari
authors.forename: Uonees
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ghasembaklo
authors.forename: Ghasem
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mohamadyari
authors.forename: Seyed Ali
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Azadmanesh
authors.forename: Elmira
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Akbari
mesh_terms: D001722:Birth Order; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008603:Mental Health; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Epidemiology; Female student; GHQ-28; Mental health