Community Medicine Abstracts - College of Medicine and Health ...

Project No. 232 (2006)Prevalence of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms Among UAE UniversityFemale Medical and Information Technology StudentsStudent Authors: Sara Ahmed Mohd Al-Dallal, Manal Abdulkarim Al-Belooshi, MaithaMohd Al-Khader, Catherine Peckett (Univ of London UK)Faculty Supervisors: Dr. J. Schneider, Dr. M. Grivna, Dr. R. BernsenAbstract:Objectives: Depression and anxiety are common symptoms among medical students.We aimed to determine the prevalence of both symptoms among female medical andIT students in the UAE University and investigate the difference between students indifferent faculties.Methods: The study design was a cross-sectional analytic survey of 120 medical and120 IT students in UAEU. Self-administered questionnaire was used8; data wasentered by Access and analyzed in SPSS.Results: The response rate was 100%. 53% of medical and 54% of IT studentsshowed depressive symptoms; 9% of medical and 23% of IT students reported‘severe’ or ‘extremely severe’ symptoms (p=0.003). 68% of medical students and69% of IT students reported symptoms of anxiety; 23% of medical and 30% of ITstudents reported ‘severe’ or ‘extremely severe’ symptoms. Medical students indicatedmore than IT students that living away from home was stressor (p=0.024). Thedifference between age and expected year of study had a significant effect (p=0.013)on depressive symptoms; a student older than her group was more likely to reportdepressive symptoms.Conclusion: Medical and IT students were similar in expressing mild and moderateanxiety and depressive symptoms. The results of both symptoms showed that ITstudents were significantly more severely depressed than medical students. Bothgroups reported living away from home as a significant stressor.