Evaluating Prevalence of Depression and Related Factors Among Students of an Iranian University (Case Study: Quchan University of Technology)

Abstract Psychological disorders such as depression are common. Many of these disorders can be evaluated and diagnosed, and above all they are preventable. This study was conducted with the aim of determining depression prevalence rate and its related factors among students of Quchan University of Technology, Quchan, Iran. In a cross-sectional study, 359 students were selected by using simple random sampling. Demographic characteristics were gathered and subjects were evaluated by the Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI). SPSS software was used for statistical analysis and logistic regression, Chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests were utilized for this purpose. The age mean of students was 21.02±2.57 (Mean, SD). 93 (25.9%) subjects suffer from depression and 266 (74.1%) subjects are not depressed. There is no significant difference between depression and each of these variables: gender, body mass index (BMI), marital status, field of study, living in dormitory, and depression (p-value>0.05); but there was significant difference between depressed and non-depressed students in terms of salary, anxiety, educational level, and satisfaction with field of study (p-value<0.05). According to the results, anxiety (OR=0.2), educational level (OR=5.03), satisfaction with field of study (OR=0.5) and monthly income (OR=3.76) impact depression. Improving the students’ consultancy in universities can be helpful to decrease anxiety. In addition, consultants can prepare students for selecting their favorite field of study. Also, it is suggested that university officials provide financial facilities such as interest-free loan for students.