title: Health professions' students have an alarming prevalence of depressive symptoms: exploration of the associated factors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a need to better understand the depression phenomenon and to clarify why some students become depressed and others don't. The purpose of this study was to compare the prevalence of depressive symptoms among health professions' (HP) students, and to explore the association between socio-demographic factors (e.g. year of study, discipline, gender) and depressive symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this descriptive-analytic, cross-sectional study, stratified proportionate sampling strategy was used to select the study sample during the academic year 2012-2013. The students from four health professions' schools situated within a large, public university located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were screened for depressive symptoms using the 21-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI II). Chi-square test, student t-test and ANOVA were used to compare different categorical variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall response rate was 79.0 %, the highest among dental students 86.1 %, and lowest among nursing (49.7 %). The overall prevalence rate of depressive symptoms was 47.0 %; it was highest among dentistry students (51.6 %), followed by medicine (46.2 %), applied medical sciences (AMS) (45.7 %) and lowest among nursing students (44.2 %). A statistically significant association was found between the presence and severity of depressive symptoms on one hand and the female gender (p = 0.000) and year of study on the other hand.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study seems to indicate an alarming rate of depressive symptoms. Female gender, dentistry, the third year for all schools and fifth year for medicine and dentistry have the highest association with depressive symptoms. Future studies may be needed to explore further the reasons and explanations for the variation in the prevalence of depressive symptoms among these groups. The factors that deserve exploration include curricular variables and personal factors such as the students' study skills.
authors: Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors: Eiad
authors: E
authors: AlFaris
authors: Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. masoodfarhana1969@gmail.com.
authors: Farhana
authors: F
authors: Irfan
authors: Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors: Riaz
authors: R
authors: Qureshi
authors: Medical Education Department, Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors: Naghma
authors: N
authors: Naeem
authors: Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, PO Box 7544, Riyadh, 13317-4233, Saudi Arabia.
authors: Abdulaziz
authors: A
authors: Alshomrani
authors: Medical Education, Medical Education Development and Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
authors: Gominda
authors: G
authors: Ponnamperuma
authors: Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors: Nada
authors: N
authors: Al Yousufi
authors: Biostatistical Consultant CDRC, College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors: Nasr
authors: N
authors: Al Maflehi
authors: General Surgery Division, KKUH, KSU, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors: Mohammad
authors: M
authors: Al Naami
authors: College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors: Amr
authors: A
authors: Jamal
authors: Department of Educational Development and Research, School of Health Professions Education, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors: Cees
authors: C
authors: van der Vleuten
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Depression; Health science students; Mental health; Prevalence; Wellness