A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Depression Prevalence Among Nigerian Students Pursuing Higher Education

Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders currently going undiagnosed in many developing countries, including Nigeria. Stigmatization, inadequate financial resources, poor healthcare infrastructure for accurate diagnosis, and low research attention are contributing factors to the prevalence of depression among youths in West Africa. This study therefore estimated the prevalence of depression among higher education students in Nigeria. Data was extracted and examined from 1225 publications by three independent reviewers. Pooling of logittransformed data was done using generalized linear mixed-effects model, while restricted maximum likelihood was used to estimate between-study variance (τ2). Knapp-Hartung adjustments were included for calculating the confidence intervals around pooled effects; and R was used to calculate pooled estimates of depression prevalence. The effects of predictors of depression were examined by subgroup analyses and random-effect metaregression models