Prevalence of depression and anxiety among school-going teenagers in Kenya

• In Event: Leadership, Governance and Innovation

Proposal

Background: Nearly 45% of all diseases affecting young people worldwide are mental health disorders, and they are associated with a variety of detrimental life effects that may last a lifetime. Help is sadly inaccessible for many young people in school who are coping with mental health issues in low- and middle-income countries because of structural hurdles like stigma and a lack of caregiving options. By deepening our understanding of juvenile mental health issues in this setting, we can increase the opportunities for youth with mental health problems in low- and middle-income nations to receive care. In sub-Saharan African nations like Kenya, where 50% of the population is under 19, this requirement is especially critical.

Objective: To explore the role of household wealth and related determinants on the prevalence of depression and anxiety.

Methods: This study utilizes Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022 which was conducted by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The main outcome variable was the prevalence of depression or anxiety among school-going teenagers who were below the age of twenty. The main explanatory variables are wealth quintiles, rural or urban residents, gender of household head, among others.

The prevalence of depression or anxiety was predicted as an outcome using multilevel binary logistic regression with an adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval. Depression/anxiety distribution inequality was done by calculating depression/anxiety prevalence relative to the household’s wealth quintile rank.

Results: A total of 1.5% of surveyed individuals registered depression/anxiety. Girls scored 59.8% of depression/anxiety prevalence and only 22.2% of the depression/anxiety patients were receiving treatment. Rural areas registered depression/anxiety with 59.8%. Results indicate that the lowest quantile reported Depression/Anxiety with 20.5%. Only 27% of individuals with Depression/Anxiety had completed high school and above. The concentration index of the distribution of Depression/Anxiety was -0.1759 meaning that the distribution of depression and anxiety among school-going children was slightly pro-poor.

Recommendation:
Put more effort into diagnosing and treating depression/ anxiety among school-going teenagers especially those who come from low-income areas. Since the effect of poor mental health is impacting the education journey of learners, education and health stakeholders need to partner in addressing this issue.
Pay more attention to the mental status of the female gender since the evidence indicates that they are more vulnerable to ill mental health compared to their male counterparts.

Authors

• Peter Mokaya, University of Pecs

• Gabriella Hideg, University of Pecs