Depression Situation for Thai University Students
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Abstract
This research article aimed at exploring the depression situation for Thai university students. The two main objectives of this research were 1) to survey the prevalence of depression for Thai undergraduate students, in this case at a Bangkok public university, and 2) to study the prevalence of depression for Thai university students by gender, years of study, etc. The reseach received permission from the university research ethics board and the analyzed data related to the study objectives. The three instruments used to collect data were: 1) The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) Thai version; 2) The Patient Health Questionnaire 2 (PHQ-2); and 3) The Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9). The sample consisted of 700 undergraduate students from the target university and was conducted during the 2016 academic year. Systematic sampling was used to select the subjects. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Chi-square test. The three depression questionnaires completed by the university students revealed that having a high rating for boredom, stress and loneliness was an indicator for a depressive disorder. The test of the hypothesis showed a 23.0% prevalence rate of depression for undergraduate students. The Chi-square test revealed that the percentage of depression for the university students (23.0%) was higher than for the overall Thai population (4%) with a statistical significance of 0.01. The rate of depression was found to be higher for male students than for female students, which differed from other studies.
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