The Associations between Social Support, Health-Related Behaviors, Socioeconomic Status and Depression in Medical Students

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of depression in medical students and to evaluate whether interpersonal social support, health-related behaviors, and socio-economic factors were associated with depression in medical students. METHODS The subjects in this study were 120 medical students in Seoul, Korea who were surveyed in September, 2008. The subjects were all women and over the age of 20. Their age, body mass index (BMI), quality of sleep, diet, household income, smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise levels, and self-reported health status were surveyed. The degree of perceived social support was measured using the interpersonal support evaluation list (ISEL). Depression was evaluated using the center for epidemiology studies depression scale (CES-D). RESULTS The mean CES-D score was 14.1±8.6 and 37.1% of the participants appeared to suffer from depression. Low levels of perceived interpersonal support increased the risk of depression by more than 10 times and having higher household income did not necessarily decrease the risk of depression. CONCLUSION Medical students have a relatively high level of depression. Efforts should be made to encourage social support in order to promote mental health in medical students.

[1]  J. Steiner,et al.  Depression in husbands of breast cancer patients: relationships to coping and social support , 2011, Supportive Care in Cancer.

[2]  H. Jeon,et al.  The Prevalence and Impact of Depression Among Medical Students: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study in South Korea , 2010, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[3]  E. Yokoyama,et al.  Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Smoking among Japanese Medical Students , 2010, Journal of epidemiology.

[4]  A. Agrawal,et al.  The association between perceived interpersonal social support and physical and mental health: results from the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. , 2010, Journal of public health.

[5]  John H Krystal,et al.  A prospective cohort study investigating factors associated with depression during medical internship. , 2010, Archives of general psychiatry.

[6]  Bjørn Hofmann,et al.  Why simulation can be efficient: on the preconditions of efficient learning in complex technology based practices , 2009, BMC medical education.

[7]  S. Park,et al.  Depression and Its Infl uencing Factors among Korean Medical and Engineering Students in Urban Areas using Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale , 2009 .

[8]  C. Teng,et al.  Daytime sleepiness and sleep quality among Malaysian medical students. , 2009, The Medical journal of Malaysia.

[9]  S. W. Jung,et al.  Characteristics of major depressive disorder according to family history of depression : A CRESCEND-K (Clinical Research Center for Depression in Korea) study. , 2008 .

[10]  Yasuto Sato,et al.  Relationship between Socioeconomic Factors, Health Behaviors, and Mental Health among University Students of Heilongjiang Province in China , 2008 .

[11]  T. Mendelson,et al.  Relation of female gender and low socioeconomic status to internalizing symptoms among adolescents: a case of double jeopardy? , 2008, Social science & medicine.

[12]  Jaehyun Park,et al.  The Effects of Coping Style on Subjective Well-Being Among Medical Students , 2007 .

[13]  A. Finset,et al.  Life satisfaction and resilience in medical school – a six-year longitudinal, nationwide and comparative study , 2006, BMC medical education.

[14]  Tait D. Shanafelt,et al.  Systematic Review of Depression, Anxiety, and Other Indicators of Psychological Distress Among U.S. and Canadian Medical Students , 2006, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[15]  M. Dahlin,et al.  Stress and depression among medical students: a cross‐sectional study , 2005, Medical education.

[16]  Judy A Shea,et al.  Factors Associated With Undertreatment of Medical Student Depression , 2005, Journal of American college health : J of ACH.

[17]  N. Oğuzhanoğlu,et al.  Depressive symptomatology among university students in Denizli, Turkey: prevalence and sociodemographic correlates. , 2005, Croatian medical journal.

[18]  D. Mark,et al.  Perceived Social Support as a Predictor of Mortality in Coronary Patients: Effects of Smoking, Sedentary Behavior, and Depressive Symptoms , 2005, Psychosomatic medicine.

[19]  Sun Young Park,et al.  Prevalence and determining factors related to depression among adult women in Korea. , 2004, Taehan Kanho Hakhoe chi.

[20]  Alex McConnachie,et al.  First year medical student stress and coping in a problem‐based learning medical curriculum , 2004, Medical education.

[21]  G. Ergör,et al.  Substance use in a sample of Turkish medical students. , 2003, Drug and alcohol dependence.

[22]  Robert Michels,et al.  Confronting depression and suicide in physicians: a consensus statement. , 2003, JAMA.

[23]  M. Marazita,et al.  Perceived social support of mothers of children with clefts. , 2003, The Cleft palate-craniofacial journal : official publication of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association.

[24]  P. Philippot,et al.  Socioeconomic inequalities in depression: a meta-analysis. , 2003, American journal of epidemiology.

[25]  Jennifer Tjia,et al.  Depressed Medical Students' Use of Mental Health Services and Barriers to Use , 2002, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[26]  S. Ball,et al.  Self‐care in Medical Education: Effectiveness of Health‐habits Interventions for First‐year Medical Students , 2002, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[27]  Y. Şenol,et al.  Anxiety, depression and stressful life events among medical students: a prospective study in Antalya, Turkey , 2001, Medical education.

[28]  S. Beach,et al.  Individual and crossover effects of stress on adjustment in medical student marriages. , 2000, Journal of marital and family therapy.

[29]  F. Kamali,et al.  Factors influencing alcohol and illicit drug use amongst medical students. , 2000, Drug and alcohol dependence.

[30]  D. Ford,et al.  Insomnia in young men and subsequent depression. The Johns Hopkins Precursors Study. , 1997, American journal of epidemiology.

[31]  J. Lönnqvist,et al.  Suicides among physicians, engineers and teachers: the prevalence of reported depression, admissions to hospital and contributory causes of death , 1997, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica.

[32]  J. Ockene,et al.  A longitudinal study of students' depression at one medical school , 1997, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[33]  E. Guthrie,et al.  Embarking upon a medical career: psychological morbidity in first year medical students , 1995, Medical education.

[34]  J. Lockyer,et al.  Stress among residents, medical students, and graduate science (MSc/PhD) students , 1993, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

[35]  D. Clark,et al.  Vicissitudes of depressed mood during four years of medical school. , 1988, JAMA.

[36]  Sheldon Cohen,et al.  Positive Events and Social Supports as Buffers of Life Change Stress , 1983 .

[37]  A. Sahraian,et al.  SLEEP DISRUPTION AND ITS CORRELATION TO PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS , 2010 .

[38]  C. Reynolds,et al.  Confronting Depression and Suicide in Physicians , 2003 .

[39]  J. van Limbeek,et al.  Criterion validity of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D): results from a community-based sample of older subjects in The Netherlands. , 1997, Psychological medicine.

[40]  L. Radloff.  The CES-D Scale: A Self-Report Depression Scale for Research in the General Population — Source link , 2022 .