Prevalence of mental health problems among students

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Entering university can be a high-risk time for the development or worsening of mental health issues (Reavley, Mccann, & Jorm, 2012). A clear understanding of prevalence rates of mental health problems among university students is hampered by a reliance on convenience samples. The heavy reliance on convenience samples hinders understanding of the prevalence of these issues at the population-level generalization because participating students may not be representative of the wider student population.
Objective: To identify the prevalence of mental health problems among a population sample of School of Biological and Chemical Sciences (SBCS) undergraduate students in their first year at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).
Method: We examined mental health symptomology among first year SBCS BSc and MSci students (N= 474; 74.3% female, 73.0% of the total first-year cohort) at QMUL during induction week. The sample was collected using whole population sampling technique, during their induction week sessions. The Patient Heath Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) (Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001) was used to measure the prevalence of depressive symptoms, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7) (Spitzer et al., 2006) was used to measure the prevalence of anxiety symptoms, and The Short Version Sleep Condition Indicator (SCI) (Espie et al., 2014) was used to measure the prevalence of sleep problems among students. Validated cut-off scores for clinically significant levels of depression and anxiety were used (Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001; Spitzer et al., 2006)
Results: During induction week, 26.5% and 28.7% of students suffered from clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety, respectively. This suggests that more than a quarter of SBCS students enter university with substantial mental health difficulties. A nationally representative study of 17-19-year-olds in England conducted in 2017 found that 4.8% had a depressive disorder and 13.1% had an anxiety disorder (NHS Digital, 2018), suggesting that prevalence of psychopathology among university students is higher than would be expected from a population sample in England.
An independent samples t-test was conducted to determine whether there is a difference in anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms and sleep problems among male and female students. Female students had more anxiety symptoms (M=7.74, SD=5.96) than male students (M=5.14, SD=3.70), t(395) = -4.12, p<.001. Female students had more depressive symptoms (M = 7.15, SD = 5.81) than male students (M=4.80, SD=4.85), t(375) = -3.45, p=.001. Female students had more sleep problems (M=2.91, SD=2.46) than male students (M=1.99, SD=2.91), t(450) = -3.61, p<.001.
Implications: This study addressed the limitation of convenience sampling (El Ansari et al., 2011) through population sampling, and so have a stronger understanding of the actual incidence of mental health problems among students in this study than in previous work. These findings show that many students enter university with substantial mental health difficulties, and are thus not consistent with the notion that university causes mental health problems. This is a first step in developing approaches to improve our students’ wellbeing. These findings indicate the need for local (university based) mental health promotion programs to encourage students to access the services.

Authors

• Farah Saleem, Queen Mary University of London
  Presenting Author

• Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sophie Pettit, Queen Mary University of London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristin Hadfield, Trinity College Dublin
  Non-Presenting Author