Prevalence of depression and its correlates among undergraduate health science students in Mogadishu, Somalia: a cross-sectional study

• Published in: BMC psychiatry 2025-02, Vol.25 (1), p.89-9, Article 89
• Main Authors: Garba, Bashiru, Mohamed, Samiro Ali, Mohamed, Maria Mowlid, Asowe, Hodo Aideed, Dirie, Najib Isse, Umar, Yushau, Mohamoud, Jamal Hassan, Adam, Mohamed Hussein, Hassan, Jihaan, Orey, Fartun Abdullahi Hassan, Omar, Abdullahi Abdirahman, Mohamed, Ibrahim Abdullahi, Ahmed, Mohamad Mustaf, Moalim, Samira Abdullahi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic performance; Adolescent; Adult; Chronic illnesses; College students; Colleges & universities; Cross-Sectional Studies; Curricula; Demographics; Depression; Depression - epidemiology; Depression - psychology; Education; Emotional distress; Female; Gender; Humanitarian crisis; Humans; International organizations; Laboratories; Male; Medicine; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental health; Midwifery; Mogadishu; Nursing; Population; Prevalence; Private colleges & universities; Private schools; Public health; Questionnaires; Risk factors; Sample size; Sampling techniques; Science; Sociodemographics; Somalia; Statistical analysis; Statistical sampling; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Students, Health Occupations - psychology; Students, Health Occupations - statistics & numerical data; Universities; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1471-244X; 1471-244X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12888-025-06553-5

Depression among undergraduate health science students is increasingly recognized as a significant public health issue globally. These students face immense academic pressure, often leading to stress and mental exhaustion, particularly for students studying in a humanitarian crisis situation. However, there is a scarcity of information in this regard in higher education institutions in Somalia. Hence, this investigation was conducted to assess the prevalence of depression and its correlates health science students in Somalia. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 321 health science students from some universities in Mogadishu, Somalia. The data was collected from students studying medicine, nursing and midwifery, laboratory science and public health at SIMAD university, Banadir university, Mogadishu university and Jamhuriya university, all located in Mogadishu. Simple random sampling based on class list was used to select the participants and a web-based self-administered Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to screen for depression. The collected data were cleaned and checked for completeness before exporting into SPSS version 27 Statistical software for analysis, where descriptive statistics as well as logistic regression analysis was done to determine the independent predictors of the outcome variable. Significant association was determined at a 95% confidence interval and p-value