Prevalence of depression and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background Depression is one of the most commonly occurring mental disorders globally and it is increasingly prevalent among university students. This systematic review and meta-analysis will provide the pooled prevalence of depression and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia. Method The studies will be identified from data base of PubMed, Google scholar, EMBASE and reference lists of previous studies. All cross-sectional studies reporting the prevalence of depression among university students in Ethiopia will be included. In order to transform the prevalence of extracted studies we will use Freeman-Tukey transformation (arcsine square root transformation and the pooled proportion will be calculated using the back-transformation of the weighted mean of the transformed proportions, using inverse arcsine variance weights for the fixed-effects model and DerSimonian-Laird weights for the random-effects model. The Cochrane Q test and I2 test statistic will be used to test heterogeneity across studies. Meta regression and Subgroup analyses will be performed to explore source of Heterogeneity between studies and evidence of publication bias will also be assessed. Discussion Estimating the prevalence of depression among university student will help policy-makers and other stakeholders in developing evidence-based mental health promotion and prevention programme in university settings. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42023418350