Abstract:
Depression and anxiety are becoming significant public health problems among medical students.
This study aimed to assess the prevalence and predictors of depression and anxiety among medical
students at the University of Gondar, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Northwest,
Ethiopia. An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 25 to May
25/2021. The study participants were selected using systematic random sampling. Data were
collected using a structured questionnaire from each medical student during the study period. The
data were entered by Epidata version V4.6.0.2 and analyzed with SPSS version 20. Descriptive
statistics were employed to describe the sample and the prevalence of depression and anxiety
among medical students. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to
examine the association of the independent and the dependent variables. In this study, the
prevalence of depression and anxiety was found to be 56.3%[95%CI(51.5-61.8)] and
45.2%[95%CI(39.7-49.5)], respectively. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis
revealed that year of study, a habit of not alcohol drinking, a habit of not chewing kchat, having
no recreation time, having financial stress, and sleeping problems were found to be potential
predictors of depression among medical students. Whereas, former residence of being rural, being
the fifth year, having recreation time and some physical exercises were found to be statistically
significantly associated with anxiety. In this study, the prevalence of depression and anxiety were
found to be relatively high as compared with other studies.
Finally, it is recommended that designing preventive and intervention programs, primarily
focusing on psychological intervention for improving the mental health of medical students is
critical.
