Screening for depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders among secondary school students in Al-Hasa Region, Saudi Arabia

Stressors and coping strategies among secondary school male students in Abha City, Saudi Arabia

Background

Stress is a biological process in which exposure to stressors is associated with bad health effects, decreased ability of disease management, and a higher likelihood for disease-related complications and comorbidities. Stress has been considered the main factor in the etiology of many diseases such as diabetes mellitus, cardiac diseases, and body aches for centuries. Students meet many stressful situations such as the need for success, academic demands, homesickness, and lack of social support. Coping with stress can be a leading cause in preventing psychological distress and a serious illness.

Methods

A correlational cross-sectional approach was applied to the current research. The research targeted all secondary school male students in Abha city. A multistage cluster sample was applied by selecting schools and students from the Directorate of Education in Abha. Self-administered questionnaire sheets were distributed to students in their classes. The questionnaire covered students' sociodemographic data such as age, grades, parents' education and work, living conditions, and comorbidities. Stressors to which the students were exposed were also enumerated with the degree of stress for each. Stress was assessed using the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory for youth. Coping skills were measured using the abbreviated version of the COPE Inventory.

Results

The study included 324 students whose ages ranged from 15 to 20 years old with a mean age of 17 ± 0.9 years old. Approximately 33% of the students were in first grade; 44.4% of the students had no or minimal level of stress while major stress was recorded among 26.5% of the students. In total, 77.8% of the students had moderate coping and none had high coping ability.

Conclusion

The study revealed that more than half of the students had significant levels of stress and one out of each four had major stress. The most common stressors were due to the school environment and future planning. Young age, low socioeconomic status, parents' separation, and having chronic health problems were the most important determinants of stress among the students.

Prevalence and correlates of lifestyle behavior, anxiety and depression in Chinese college freshman: A cross-sectional survey

Objectives

First-year college students had exposure to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors that correlate with a high prevalence of anxiety and depression. Regarding to the modifiable lifestyle behaviors factors, this study investigated the prevalence and correlation of multiple lifestyle behaviors, anxiety and depression in a sample of Chinese first-year college students.

Methods

Cross-sectional data were extracted from Residents eHealth app of health lifestyle behaviors survey from September to October 2019. Anxiety, depression, eating regular meals, consumption of snacks in-between meals, consumption of fruit, dessert and sugar-sweetened beverages, smoking and secondhand smoke exposure, consuming alcohol, physical activity, sedentary time were assessed by self-report. Socio-demographic including age, gender, education, family income, religion, and health condition were captured. Logistic regression was used to explore the association of multiple lifestyle behaviors, anxiety and depression.

Results

Totally 1,017 participants were included in the study. The prevalence of anxiety and depression (from mild to severe) were 40.3% and 45.3%, respectively. In multivariable analyses, religion (believe in Buddhism, OR = 2.438, 95%CI: 1.097-5.421; believe in Christian, OR = 5.886, 95%CI: 1.604-21.597), gender (Female, OR = 1.405, 95%CI: 1.001-1.971), secondhand smoke exposure (OR = 1.089, 95%CI: 1.001-1.184), and eating regular meals (OR = 0.513, 95%CI: 0.346-0.759) were associated with anxiety. Family income (OR = 0.732, 95%CI: 0.596-0.898), eating regular meals (OR = 0.641, 95%CI: 0.415-0.990), frequency of breakfast (OR = 0.813, 95%CI: 0.690-0.959), with a chronic disease (OR = 1.902, 95%CI: 1.335-2.712), and consumption of nocturnal snack (OR = 1.337, 95%CI: 1.108-1.612) were associated with depression.

Conclusions

These results highlighted the need for early lifestyle behavior intervention, especially modifying diet patterns considering the background of religion, health condition, and social-economic status in first-year college students to improve their mental health.