Prevalence and influencing factors of depression among college freshmen

Objective To study depression status and its influencing factors among college freshmen majoring in different disciplines and to provide basic information for prevention and control of depression in the students.Methods Self-Rating Depression Scale(SDS) was administered to 4789 freshmen selected with stratified cluster sampling from a university in Qingdao city, Shandong province between October and November 2014.Then, Egma Minnen av Bardndosnauppforstran(EMBU) of Chinese Version and Adolescent Self-Rating Life Event Checklist were completed by 463 freshmen with the SDS scores of ≥53.T test, chi-square test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used in analyses.Results The overall detection rate of depression was 9.8% among the freshmen; the detection rate(18.2%) was significantly higher in the freshmen majoring in art than those majoring in engineering, management, economics, science, and medicine(χ²=26.743, P=0.001) and the freshmen from rural areas had significantly higher detection rate than those from urban areas(10.8% vs.8.2%, P<0.001).Compared with the norms of Chinese, the freshmen with depression symptoms had significantly higher scores for EMBU domains of maternal rejection and denial(both P<0.05), fatherly rejection, denial, emotional warmth, and comprehension(all P<0.001) and significantly lower scores for favoritism and overprotection of father and mother and maternal excessive interference(all P<0.001); additionally, the freshmen showed significantly higher score of life event for health adaptation(P<0.001) and lower scores for study stress, perceived punishment, and incapacitation(all P<0.001).The results of multivariate logistic regression revealed that the freshmen from urban areas had an increased risk of moderate-severe depression compared to those from rural areas(odds ratio OR=1.97, 95% confidence interval 95% CI:1.16-3.35; P=0.012); fatherly overprotection increased the risk of moderate-severe depression by 21%(OR=1.21, 95% CI:1.00-1.45; P=0.046), while maternal excessive interference and overprotection could decrease the risk of moderate-severe depression(OR=0.87, 95% CI:0.75-1.00; P=0.056).Conclusion The detection rate of depression is different among the college freshmen majoring in various disciplines and the freshmen majoring in art may have a higher rate and those in other disciplines.Parental rejection and denial, the lack of parental concern and care, and changes in living environment are major influencing factors for the onset of depression among college freshmen.