@article{Shrestha_Shrestha_Khanal_Dahal_Lama_Simkhada_Pradhan_2019, title={Prevalence of Depression among Medical Students of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital }, volume={57}, url={https://www.jnma.com.np/jnma/index.php/jnma/article/view/4738}, DOI={10.31729/jnma.4738}, abstractNote={<p><strong>Introduction:</strong> Depression is one of the major problems encountered by medical students. This may<br>cause a negative effect on cognitive functioning and learning of students resulting in poor health<br>care and service delivery in future. The presence of this major problem is necessary to be evaluated.<br>Enough recent data regarding its prevalence is not available in our country. Thus, the main aim of<br>this study is to find the prevalence of depression among medical students of a tertiary care teaching<br>hospital.</p> <p><br><strong>Methods:</strong> This is a descriptive cross-sectional study which was conducted among undergraduate<br>medical students of a tertiary teaching hospital over a four-month period (July to October 2019).<br>Ethical clearance was received from the Institutional Review Committee of the same tertiary teaching<br>hospital. Random sampling technique was used to collect data to meet the calculated sample size.<br>Data analysis was done in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Point estimate at 95% Confidence<br>Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data.</p> <p><br><strong>Results:</strong> The prevalence of depression among selected medical students of Kathmandu Medical<br>College and Teaching Hospital is 59 (27.2%) at 95% Confidence Interval (21.28-33.12%). Thirty (14%)<br>of the participants were mildly depressed, 21 (10%) moderately depressed while 8 (4%) were severely<br>depressed according to Beck’s Depression Index II.</p> <p><br><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Prevalence of depression among medical students is relatively significant as found<br>in similar studies done in other centres. Thus appropriate programs and strategies should be<br>implemented to avoid depression from causing a negative effect on cognitive functioning and<br>learning of students. Favourable environment where students are able to talk about their mental<br>health issues is a must.</p>}, number={220}, journal={Journal of Nepal Medical Association}, author={Shrestha, Nikhil and Shrestha, Neharika and Khanal, Smriti and Dahal, Sujata and Lama, Roshan and Simkhada, Prashant and Pradhan, Sudarshan Narsingh}, year={2019}, month={Dec.} }