Prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among school going adolescent in Chandigarh

Abstract

Context:Depressive disorders often start at a young age. There is a need for early identification of depression, anxiety, and stress (DAS) and prevention. The present study was undertaken to find the magnitude of DAS among adolescents.Aims:To find the mental health status of school going adolescents in Chandigarh. The objectives were (i) to study the prevalence of DAS among school going adolescents and (ii) to study the correlates of DAS.Settings and Design:A Cross-sectional survey of students of four classes from 9th to 12th studying in government schools.Subjects and Methods:Ten government schools in Chandigarh were randomly selected through lottery method. In each school, for each of the four classes, a section was randomly selected again by the lottery method. Forty students were selected from each school reaching sample size of 470. DAS scale 21 questionnaires were used.Statistical Analysis Used:The data entry was done in MS Office Excel 2007. The analysis was done in the form of frequency tables, charts cross tables. For statistical significance, Chi-square test and correlation was found between various factors.Results:The prevalence of DAS was 65.53%, 80.85%, and 47.02%, respectively. Overall, comorbidity between depression and anxiety was 57.65%. Extremely severe depression was very less (3%). The prevalence of DAS was higher in females. For depression and anxiety, the peak age was 18 years.Conclusions:The prevalence of DAS was high among school going adolescents in Chandigarh. There is a need for early and effective identification of DAS that can prevent many psychiatric disorders at their nascent stage.

Factors Associated with Depression among School-going Adolescent Girls in a District of Northern India: A Cross-sectional Study

“…Almost majority of the studies in Indian and Asian setup had reported a significant association between socioeconomic status and depression. [41317293233] However, no such association has been found in our study. This could be explained by the fact that although socioeconomic status has a high impending impact on cognitive and behavioral domains of adolescents, the effect of this individual-level factor could be suboptimized or nullified by other predominant intervening factors such as parental education, occupation, and other basic background characteristics.…”

“…had found the combined prevalence of anxiety and depression to be about 57.65% among school-going adolescents. [4] Ganesh et al . had reported a much higher prevalence of 71.5%.…”

“…[13172729] In contradiction to that, some other previous studies had reported more depressive symptoms among students studying in higher standards and had accounted it to academic pressure. [43031]…”

“…Globally, it has been reported that depressive disorders often start at an early age, with prevalence rates of mental illness among children and adolescents ranging between 1% and 51%. [4] More precisely, among adolescents between the age of 14 and 19 years, the prevalence was reported to be from 15% to 20%. [5] Depression is a global concern for children, adolescents, and adults even in developed nations.…”

“…[7] In India, the combined prevalence of depression and anxiety among school-going adolescents has been reported as 57.65%, with 3% cases of extremely severe depression. [4] Depressive disorders are reported to be considerably more common in females, with a lifetime prevalence of 14.1% for females and 8.6% for males. [89] This has been attributed to genetics, increased prevalence of anxiety disorders in females, biological changes associated with puberty, cognitive predisposition, and sociocultural factors.…”