Psychiatric Morbidity and Its Associated Factors, amongst Third Year Students of a Nigerian University

Abstract

Background: The problem of psychiatric morbidity among university students is important because subsequent impairment of the student’s capacity for study may invariably lead to the termination of their studies(various works, as reviewed in the literature, have confirmed this).

Aim/Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among third year undergraduate students and the socio-demographic characteristics associated with morbidity.

Methods: The study was descriptive and cross-sectional in design. The 28-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHO-28) was used to collect information from 1,125 respondents who were selected using multistage sampling technique. The questionnaires of 1,060 respondents were analyzed.

Results: The mean age of respondents was 23.19±3.63 years. 43.2% of the respondents were females, while 56.8% were males. The prevalence of probable psychiatric morbidity was 33.5% (95% CI = 33.2 – 33.1) Female students had a significant preponderance of psychiatric morbidity (36.8%) as against male students (30.7%). Sex, course of study, pattern of relationship between parents, mother’s character and academic performance significantly differentiated between cases and non cases. Academic performance, relationship between parents and being a student of agricultural science were variables that predicted psychiatric morbidity.

Conclusion: The study has contributed to the wealth of evidence that mental impairment is highly prevalent in student population. In order to prevent student wastage, urgent and lasting intervention by way of effective mental health care services in university campuses is necessary.

Keywords: Psychiatry morbidity, University students, Nigeria.