Prevalence of depression among Chinese medical students: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

The prevalence of depression continues to increase among medical students in China, and higher than that of other majors, which is a potential risk for medical students and their patients. This study aimed to observe the prevalence of depression in Chinese medical students and also the correlation between them. All cross-sectional studies on the prevalence of depression in Chinese medical students were retrieved from PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CNKI, and Wanfang. An 11-item checklist recommended by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality was adopted to evaluate the methodological quality of the included studies. Software Stata 12.0 was used to analyze the data. Registration: PROSPERO, CRD42020169681. The prevalence of depression among medical students in China was 27%. The subgroup analysis showed significant differences in the prevalence of depression in different regions. The sleep quality was a significant heterogeneous source of depression. Medical students with sleep disorders were more than three times as likely to report depression. The prevalence of depression in Chinese medical students is relatively high, and medical students with sleep disorders are more likely to have depression problems. Regular screening and appropriate intervention are recommended for these mental health problems.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese medical students
• depression
• prevalence
• cross-sectional studies
• meta-analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Xiaofen Ruan for advice on methodology; Dr. Meijun Jia and Dr. Yiping Li for their help in reviewing this paper and data extraction.

Authors’ contributions

TJ, XW, and YS proposed the meta-analysis and designed the study; TJ, FQ, and YS performed the systematic search and publication review; YS and HW evaluated articles for eligibility; TJ, YS, and HW performed data extraction, interpreted the results, and analysis; TJ and YS wrote the manuscript and revised all versions of the manuscript; XW and FQ conceived the study, critically reviewed the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 81573647; NO.81403352). The necessary expenses and costs of publications will be covered.