Prevalence of Associated Factors of Depressive Symptoms among School Going Children

Abstract

BACKGROUND A broad spectrum of emotional lows, from simple sadness to a pathological suicidal condition is defined as a depression. This is a common mental illness that has been noticed in daily life. Usually, a person who is depressed or feeling unhappy may return to normal emotional health within a specified time. There are times where this condition stretches for such a time that it is greatly overshadowed by the value of the precipitating factor. The patient in a prolonged depression state withdraws from his / her private, social, and professional activities. In some scenarios the diagnosis of depression should be identified. According to epidemiological studies, 15 percent to 20 percent of the children and adolescents experience at least one depressive episode in life and this is a common recurrent and impairing condition that predicts future suicide attempts, academic failure, interpersonal problems, unemployment, substance abuse, and delinquency before adulthood. The objective of the study was to assess the prevalence of associated factors of depressive symptoms among school going children and to evaluate the association of the prevalence score with selected demographic variables. METHODS This was a cross sectional study with quantitative research approach. The study was conducted in a selected school of Wardha district. Nonprobability convenience sampling technique was used to collect data from school going children. A structured questionnaire including socio demographic details & patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale was used to identify the prevalence of depressive symptoms among school going children. After collecting data, the sample characteristics were described by frequency and percentage. A chi-square test was used to find out the relationship between the association between prevalence of associated factors of depressive symptoms and selected demographic variables. RESULTS In this study 8.89 % of school going children had no depression; minimal depression was seen in 68.89 %; mild depression in 17.88 %, moderate depression in 4.44 %, and moderately severe depression in 0 % of school going children were seen. CONCLUSIONS There was a significant association between the prevalence of associated factors of depressive symptoms among school going children with gender only. KEY WORDS Prevalence, Associated Factors, Depressive Symptoms, School Going Children