Ameer Ullah Khan, Raja, Badil, Sajid Ali.
Prevalence of depression and its associated factors among nursing students in Karachi, Pakistan.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;9(1):34-6.

Background: Nursing students have extensive challenges throughout their student life which can lead to physical and psychological problems that cause poor educational performance. Mental health of the students is very essential in order to improve their study performance. We conducted this study to determine the prevalence of depression and its associated factors among nursing students in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional analytical study was accomplished among Post RN BSc. Nursing students at two Nursing Institutions of the Karachi. Data was collected with the help of validated questionnaires "Beck Depression Inventory tool" through convenient sampling technique. The total sample size was 150 participants. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16.0. Chisquare test was applied to find out the association of depression with demographic variables. Level of significance was considered as at p-value 0.05. Results: The mean age of the student was 29.4 ± 5.67 years of standard deviation. Majority 78 (52%) of the participants were females. All respondents were from the Post RN BSc. Nursing program. More than half 84 (56%) of the participating students were from Semester-III. Only 4 (2.7%) of the subjects were from semester IV. A very high prevalence of depression 114 (76%) was found among nursing students. Among them, 63 (42%) had mild, 28 (18.7%) moderate, 17 (11.3%) severe and 6 (4%) were suffering from very severe depression. Participant's age and the semester was found statistically significant with depression. Conclusion: Present study concluded that depression is highly prevalent in nursing students of two different institutes of Karachi. It is equally important to give counseling session to the nursing students to empower them to cope effectively with present psychological illness for maintenance of their highest educational performance.

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