Niveles de depresión en estudiantes de la Facultad de Odontología de la Universidad Santo Tomás

Abstract

Introduction. Depression is defined as a mental disorder, those who suffer from it may experience feelings of nostalgia, anger, frustration, apathy, among others. The World Health Organization in 2018 stated that more than 300 million people worldwide could suffer from it, regardless of gender, age or socioeconomic status, being the suicide the final course. Depending on the level of affectation, it may occur on a mild, moderate or severe scale. Previous studies have shown depression levels in college students, being significantly higher when they are in the area of health. Objective. This study aimed to identify the levels of depression in the students of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Santo Tomas University sectional Bucaramanga in the second academic period of the year 2019, characterizing the study population according to the variables socioeconomic factors, academic average and semester taken. Methods. The study was cross-sectional, descriptive, and observational. The number of students sign up in this academic period was 853. The Epi Info software was used to calculate the sample size, which was estimated at 346 students. Zung's Self-Applied Depression Scale validated instrument was used for information collection, which allows to qualify symptoms associated with depressive episodes, cataloguing the absence or level of depression for each individual. Students of legal age were included in the research, singing the informed consent in which they approved their participation in the study. Were included in the research students of legal age who sing the informed consent in which they approved their participation in the study and responded to the entire instrument. Results. 53.9% of all students were in a normal range of depression, 27.6% in the mild depression category, 12.4% moderate and 6% severe. Fourth semester students had the highest levels of depression (mild 34.7%, moderate 16.7% and severe 9.7%). The age range of 18 to 19 years presented the highest levels of depression, as well as in the female group, socioeconomic level 3 and academic average between 3.5 and 4.0. Conclusions: Although the levels of depression that were seen in a greater way were mild there is a risk in the students of presenting depressive symptoms again in a more severe way it is also important to highlight the statistically significant relationship between the highest levels of depression and the academic actual semester.