Amamou B, Alouani S, Ben Haouala A, Alouani S, Tlili MA, Mhalla A, Zaafrane F, Gaha L. Depression among medical students in Tunisia: Prevalence and associated factors. World J Psychiatry 2023; 13(10): 772-783 [PMID: 38058690 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i10.772]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Badii Amamou, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Fattouma Bourguiba University Hospital of Monastir, Avenue Farhat Hached, Monastir 5000, Tunisia. amamoubadii@hotmail.fr
Research Domain of This Article
Psychology
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. Oct 19, 2023; 13(10): 772-783 Published online Oct 19, 2023. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i10.772
Depression among medical students in Tunisia: Prevalence and associated factors
Badii Amamou, Sondess Alouani, Amjed Ben Haouala, Saoussen Alouani, Mohamed Ayoub Tlili, Ahmed Mhalla, Ferid Zaafrane, Lotfi Gaha
Badii Amamou, Sondess Alouani, Amjed Ben Haouala, Saoussen Alouani, Ahmed Mhalla, Ferid Zaafrane, Lotfi Gaha, Department of Psychiatry, Fattouma Bourguiba University Hospital of Monastir, Monastir 5000, Tunisia
Mohamed Ayoub Tlili, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of Sousse, Sousse 4002, Tunisia
Author contributions: Amamou B, Alouani S, Ben Haouala A, Alouani S, Tlili MA, Mhalla A, Zaafrane F, and Gaha L contributed substantially to study conception and design, and data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation, and participated in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for intellectual content; all authors approved the final version to be published.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine of Monastir (approval No. 3067).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Badii Amamou, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Fattouma Bourguiba University Hospital of Monastir, Avenue Farhat Hached, Monastir 5000, Tunisia. amamoubadii@hotmail.fr
Received: December 5, 2022 Peer-review started: December 5, 2022 First decision: January 5, 2023 Revised: January 17, 2023 Accepted: March 22, 2023 Article in press: March 22, 2023 Published online: October 19, 2023 Processing time: 310 Days and 8.3 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Most medical schools in the world (including Tunisia) still recruit their students based solely on the university entrance exam score. Students’ motivation, though being a crucial conjecture in their academic performance and well-being, has never been conventionally and structurally assessed in Tunisia. As a result, many students simply choose the medical field due to social codes, family influences, and cultural norms.
Research motivation
It is crucial for an educational institution to assess the mental status of students and its associated factors.
Research objectives
To assess the prevalence of depressive symptoms among Tunisian medical students and to evaluate its associated factors.
Research methods
This is an online survey of students from the four Tunisian medical faculties using Beck’s depression questionnaire.
Research results
Sixty-four percent (n = 728) of the participants had depressive symptoms. Female gender, low socioeconomic level, smoking habits and history of mental disorder, performing leisure and physical activities, satisfaction toward a career choice, and happiness perception were the main prognostic factors for depression among medical students.
Research conclusions
These findings give insight into mental health issues and comorbidity among Tunisian medical students. It is a hopeful request for decision-makers and academic authorities to take serious measures and offer effective interventions to minimize the currency of psychological distress among this subpopulation.
Research perspectives
Further studies are needed to explore other correlated factors (such as emotional intelligence, coping skills, social support, religious beliefs, and personality characteristics) and to evaluate the effectiveness of these measures on depression levels among Tunisian medical students.
