Depression and Anxiety Among High School Student at Qassim Region

Background: Adolescence is a stage of changes in body and behaviour that may affect mental health. We found that no study measures the depression and anxiety in adolescence in our region, so we want to measure it and then try to improve our community.

Aim: We aim to estimate the prevalence of depression and anxiety among high school students at Qassim region.

Methods: A cross-sectional study done in al-Qassim region. A targeted population was secondary school students. The sample size was 1245 students. We used the questionnaire tool the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to assess depression in the students and the GAD7 for anxiety. The data had been gathered through MS Excel then exported to the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) for analyses. A value cut-off point of 0.05 at 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to determine statistical significance. The analyses measure the association between socio-demographic and other related variables in the survey by using a Chi-square test.

Result: Our study shows that depression by using (PHQ-9) among the 1245 students, 325 (26.0%) were not depressed, 423 (34%) were mildly depressed, 306 (24.6%) were moderately depressed, whereas 129 (10.4%) were moderately severe depressed and 62 (5.0%) were severely depressed. Anxiety by using the GAD-7 questionnaire, it was revealed that out of 1245 students, 455 (36.5%) of them were without anxiety, 425 (34.1%) of them were having mild anxiety, 243 (19.5%) of them were having moderate anxiety and 122 (9.8%) were having severe anxiety. Depression and anxiety, according to gender ( value <0.001), show a significant relationship.

Conclusion: We have to raise the awareness of the mental health in our community as the prevalence of mental disorder has significantly increased over time. Health services should make health education for students on how they deal with stress and depression through exercise and good sleep.