Depressive symptoms among primary and high school students in Zhengzhou city

Objective To investigate current situation of depressive symptoms among primary and high school students in Zhengzhou city and to provide evidences for making measures for depression intervention in the students.Methods Depressive symptoms in the students selected with stratified cluster random sampling in Zhengzhou city were assessed using Children's Depression Inventory(CDI).Results The positive rate of depression symptoms was 14.3%for all the students and the positive rates were 9.6% for the pupils,16.4% for junior high school students,and 14.8%for senior high school students,respectively,with a significant difference(P<0.05);the positive rate of boy students was significantly higher than that of girl students(17.2%vs.11.3%,P<0.05)and the positive rate of urban students was significantly higher than that of the rural students(16.5%vs.11.3%,P<0.05).The average score of CDI(±s)of the boy students(12.3±6.9)was higher than that of the girl students(11.5±6.1);the average score of the urban students(12.3±7.0)was higher than that of the rural students(11.3±5.9);the average CDI scores were 10.2±6.3 for the primary school students,12.4±6.9 for junior high school students,and 12.4±6.2 for senior high school students,respectively;the differences in the average CDI score among the students of different groups were statistically significant(P<0.05 for all).Conclusion In Zhengzhou city,the boy students,urban students,and high school students had both higher depressive symptoms detection rate and average CDI score compared to the girl students,rural students,and primary school students.