Association of depressive symptoms and social determinants of health in medical students of four countries - Czechia, Iran, Kenya, and Venezuela

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00064173%3A_____%2F25%3A43928387" target="_blank" >RIV/00064173:_____/25:43928387 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00159816:_____/25:00082267 RIV/00216224:14110/25:00141197 RIV/00216208:11120/25:43928387 RIV/00216208:11130/25:10497613 RIV/00064203:_____/25:10497613

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.21101/cejph.a8222" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.21101/cejph.a8222</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.21101/cejph.a8222" target="_blank" >10.21101/cejph.a8222</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Association of depressive symptoms and social determinants of health in medical students of four countries - Czechia, Iran, Kenya, and Venezuela

Original language description

OBJECTIVES: Medical students experience worse psychological well-being than the general population. Social determinants of health (SDOH) relate to conditions in which people live, work, and age and significantly influence mental health. This study examines the association between depressive symptoms and SDOH in medical students from four countries: Czechia, Iran, Kenya, and Venezuela. METHODS: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted in the spring of 2022. The questionnaire focused on depressive symptoms (using a validated psychiatric scale DASS-21 to assess mental health) and various SDOHs. RESULTS: A total of 2,033 medical students participated in the survey, with a median age of 23.0 years; 64.8% were females; 60.8% of respondents had some degree of depressive symptoms (mild-to-moderate 32.5%, severe-to-extremely severe 28.3%). Several SDOHs, such as low engagement in social life, low personal funds, and low social class, were strongly associated with severe-to-extremely severe depressive symptoms (p &lt; 0.001), and the associations differed among countries. The prevalence of severe-to-extremely severe depressive symptoms varied significantly across the four countries, with Iran having the highest prevalence (OR = 2.1 compared to Czechia), followed by Czechia (OR = 1, reference value), Kenya (OR = 0.9), and Venezuela (OR = 0.6). CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates the high prevalence of depressive symptoms among medical students from four global regions and the significant association with specific SDOH. Notably, the variation in prevalence across countries and differential relationships with SDOH underscore the importance of considering transcultural factors in research and management to improve mental health among medical students.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

30304 - Public and environmental health

Project

Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Central European Journal of Public Health

ISSN

1210-7778

e-ISSN

1803-1048

Volume of the periodical

33

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

7

Pages from-to

17-23

UT code for WoS article

001482618500003

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105004336922