Assessment of prevalence of depression amongst clinical medical students in Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), Aba

Background: Depression among medical students is an area of increasing concern worldwide.The objective of this study was aimed at assessing the prevalence of depression amongst clinical medical students of Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba.Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 clinical medical students of Abia state university teaching hospital (ABSUTH), Aba and a simple random technique was used to select the participants. The study population comprised of male and female clinical medical students of ABSUTH, Aba, Abia state. The population was made up of those between 19-35years. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social science (SPSS) software program version 20.Results: There were 230 males and 170 females with 126 in 400 level (31.5%), 157 in 500level(39.3%) and 117 in 600 level (29.3%).The knowledge score is above 80%, those who have heard about depression had 89.3% score thus clinical medical students had good knowledge. Severity scale was calculated using the major depression scale score (ICD-10) and it was found that 213(53.3%) students were not depressed, 75(18.8%) had mild depression and 56(14.0%) students had moderate-severe depression.Conclusion: This study brought to light that the main cause of depression among medical students of Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba was academic stress. It was discovered that the students had a good knowledge about depression; however a negative attitude towards depression was observed, thus there is need for appropriate health education.Keywords: Depression, Prevalence, Knowledge of depression, Medical student