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10623

Association Between Over-Use of Social Media and Depression among Medical Students, King Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

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Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

Background: Previous researches on the association between the use of social media and depression have yielded conflicting results. As some studies reported that social media use may reduce depression, whereas other studies observed that frequent use of social media may be associated with depressive symptoms.
Objectives: To assess the relation between overuse of social media and depression as well as identifying other risk factors related to depression among medical students.
Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional, comparative study was carried out among a representative random sample of male and female medical students in King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Anonymous self-administrated questionnaire was utilized for data collection. It consists of socio-demographic characteristics, details of social media use and PHQ-9 instrument to assessdepression among the participants. Data were collected through sending the questionnaire online through a specific WhatsApp group for the students.
Results: Out of 297 students invited to participate in the study, 239 responded by completing the questionnaire giving a response rate of 80.5%. Their age ranged between 19 and 26 years with a mean±SD of 21.4±1.5 years. Depression was reported among 67.4% of them, based on PHQ-9 instrument; it was mild among 41.8% and severe among 9.6% of the participants. Depression was more reported among female than male students (74.1% versus 63.6%), p=0.034. The highest age was reported among students with no depression (22.1±1.3 years) whereas the lowest age was observed among those with moderate depression (21.3±1.7 years), p=0.018. Histories of having family problems (p<0.001), financial problems (p=0.001), study problems (p<0.001), physical or emotional abuse (p<0.001), psychiatric problems (p=0.007) and family history of depression (p=0.047) were significantly associated with depression and its severity among the participants.
Conclusion:Depression is a common hidden health problemamong medical students in Saudi Arabia. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was not significantly associated with pattern of using social media

DOI

10.12816/0044639

Keywords

social media, depression, Medical students, PHQ-9

Authors

First Name

Abdullah

Last Name

Alsabaani

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia

Email

dr.alsabaani@hotmail.com

City

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Orcid

-

First Name

Abdullah Ali

Last Name

Alshahrani

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Interns, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Abdullah Saeed

Last Name

Abukaftah

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Interns, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Saleh Fahad

Last Name

Abdullah

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Interns, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

70

Article Issue

8

Related Issue

2053

Issue Date

2018-01-01

Receive Date

2018-08-09

Publish Date

2018-01-01

Page Start

1,305

Page End

1,311

Print ISSN

1687-2002

Online ISSN

2090-7125

Article File

EJHM_Volume 70_Issue 8_Pages 1305-1311.pdf

PDF . 429.8kB

Link

https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/article_10623.html

Detail API

https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=10623

Order

9

Type

Original Article

Type Code

606

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

The Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine

Publication Link

https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Association Between Over-Use of Social Media and Depression among Medical Students, King Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023