Depression in Bangladeshi university students: The role of sociodemographic, personal, and familial psychopathological factors

PURPOSE: Although depression has adverse effects on all aspects of university students' quality of life, fewer studies have been conducted in Bangladesh; which was investigated herein. DESIGN AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 1844 students enrolled at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to investigate the explanatory power of the variables predicting depression in this population. FINDINGS: Depression prevalence was 28.7%; and female gender, first-year student status, substance use, past-year physical and psychological illness, stressful life events, family psychiatric history, and personal suicidal behaviors were the main risk factors. The final model considering all the studied variables explained 23.5% of the variance in depression. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Effective psychological help services, awareness and intervention programs, and so on, should be implemented to reduce students' psychological burdens.