Depressive Symptoms among Haramaya University Students in Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background. The prevalence of mental health problems including depression is increasing in severity and number among higher institution students, and it has a lot of negative consequences like poor academic performance and committing suicide. Identifying the prevalence and associated factors of mental illness among higher institution students is important in order to administer appropriate preventions and interventions. In Ethiopia, only a few studies tried to report associated factors of depression among university students. Objective. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with depressive symptoms among Haramaya University students, Ethiopia. Methods. Institution-based, cross-sectional study design was conducted among 1040 students. A standard, self-administered questionnaire was used to get data from a sample of randomly selected 1040 undergraduate university students using a multistage systematic random sampling technique. The questionnaire used was the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scale which is a self-report 21-item scale that is used to assess the presence of depressive symptoms. All 21 items are rated on a three-point scale (0 to 3). Each question is scored on a 0 to 3 scale, and total scores range from 0 to 63, with higher scores reflecting greater levels of depressive symptoms. The questionnaire has been well validated as a measure of depressive symptomatology with scores 1-13 indicating minimal depressive symptoms, 14-19 showing mild depressive symptoms, 20-28 showing moderate depressive symptoms, and 29-63 indicating severe depressive symptoms. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify variables independently associated with depressive symptoms after we dichotomized the depressive symptoms screening tool to “yes/no” depressive symptoms. This means students who did not report any depressive symptoms were given “no” depressive symptoms and who reported at least one (≥1) depressive symptoms were given “yes” (depressive symptoms). Results. A total of 1022 (98.3%) out of 1040 students participated in this study. The mean age of participants was 20.9 years ( ), and the majority of them (76.0%) were male students. Prevalence of depressive symptoms among undergraduate students was 26.8% (95% CI: 24.84, 28.76). Among those who had reported depressive symptoms: 10%, 12%, 4%, and 1% of students reported minimal, mild, moderate, and severe depressive symptoms, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis in the final model revealed that being a first-year student (AOR 6.99, 95% CI: 2.31,