Awareness of depression among adolescents in Nigeria. A community-based intervention

Abstract

Background: Adolescents struggle with neuropsychiatric condition with 10%-20% experiencing mental disorders which can lead to severe disability, affecting educational and social performance. Depression is one of the most common of these conditions and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease. It has also been found to be the strongest single risk factor for attempted or completed suicides. While there is a growing literature on the mental health literacy of adults, there has not been a parallel interest in the mental health literacy of young people in Nigeria and often times, depression in adolescents go unrecognized, misdiagnosed and eventually untreated.

Aims and Objectives: To assess the knowledge of secondary school students on depression and to measure the effectiveness of the intervention (awareness on depression talk).

Methods: The study was a community-based intervention study, 58 school adolescents were screened for the pre- and post-test using a 5 – item questionnaire adapted from the ADKQ from groups of 6-8 across the 8 arms of the senior secondary 2 class in a private secondary school in South west Nigeria. Data collection and analysis was conducted using the Statistical Program for the Social Sciences software program version 25. Data were presented as frequency tables.

Results: 58 students were recruited into the study, 55 students responded to the pre- and post-test, giving a response rate of 94.8%. During the pre-test, only fifteen of the students (27.7%) correctly noted that depression cannot be controlled by willpower; twenty-seven respondents (49.8%) agreed that major depression was not a normal part of adolescence. The post-test saw an improvement in the knowledge of majority of the respondents about depression.

Conclusion: Mental health literacy was relatively low amongst the adolescents surveyed. There is a need to increase mental health awareness in Nigeria. This school-based intervention sought to help adolescents understand the concept of depression and ultimately improve the burden of depression in Nigeria in whatever minimal impact it can achieve.