Investigating the Prevalence of Mental Health Challenges among Students at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: A Case Study for Depression, Anxiety and Stress

Abstract

This study aims to assess the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) students as mental health issues are becoming more prevalent with university students. The primary data was collected from 1932 University of Dar es Salaam students through a self-administered questionnaire consisting of Sociodemographic data together with Depression (PHQ-9), Anxiety (GAD-7) and Stress (PSS) instruments. Data was scored according to the scoring procedure for each scale and statistics through statistical package of social sciences (SPSS.25). The means for depression, Anxiety and Stress are 11.8, 9.6 and 19.8 respectively. The findings show that prevalences for depression, anxiety and stress among university students was found to be 81%, 74.7% and 81.0% respectively. The prevalence for depression ranges from none to minimal (18.1%), mild (27.2%), moderate (17.7%), moderately severe (16.7%) and severe (20.2%). Anxiety was minimal (25.1%), mild (27.3%), moderate (21.3%) and severe (26.1%). Stress was low (19.0%), moderate (62.9%) and high perceived (18.1%). It can be concluded that symptoms for depression and stress are more prevalent with students but students with anxiety exhibit high moderate and severe symptoms.