Abstract

FERREL ORTEGA, Robert F.; CELIS BARROS, Adela  and  HERNANDEZ CANTERO, Olga. Depression and socio demographic factors associated with college students of health sciences from a public university. Psicol. caribe [online]. 2011, n.27, pp.40-60. ISSN 0123-417X.

This is a descriptive, cross-sectional design, carried out in order to identify levels of depression and associated sociodemographic factors in 190 students of Psychology, Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, a State University of Magdalena (35.8% men and 64.2% women, mean 20.4 years and DT 2.7). We applied the 'Beck Depression Inventory "(BDI, Beck, Rush, Shaw and Emery, 1979) and sociodemographic data were recorded. We found that 52% suffer from some degree of depression: major depression 8%, 19% moderate depression and 25% mild depression. The Medicine presented higher percentage (5.7%), followed by Dentistry (1.5%), Nursing (0.5%) and Psychology (0%). Women had a greater presence of the disease (30.4%) than men (21.4%), but men were more severely depressed than women. Major depression is more focused on layers 1 and 2, and is more prevalent ages 18 to 24 years. We conclude that there is a tendency to depressive disorders in this population, which can lead to absenteeism, desertion or suicide, as confirmed by other studies. It is recommended to design and implement prevention programs in the university and continue with further studies.

Keywords : Depression; Age; Sex; socioeconomic status; academic programs; depression; Beck Depression Inventory..

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