Past Issues

Background: The prevalence of depression among undergraduate health sciences students is thought to be higher compared to other undergraduate students. Therefore, in this study, we intended to explore the factors contributing to depression, and to find coping strategies among health sciences students at a university in Eswatini. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used among 162 conveniently sampled full-time undergraduate students. We used the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, adapted Student Stressor Questionnaire and the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory to collect data. The collected data were subjected to descriptive analysis. Results: The major findings revealed a high prevalence of depression (128, 79.0%) among participants; with males (52, 83.8%) more depressed than females (64, 72.7%), and all (12, 100%) nonbinary genders having varying degrees of depression. More than 75% of the respondents suffered from varying degrees of depression – mild (50, 32.1%), moderate (55, 34.0%), moderately severe (19, 11.9%), and severe (4, 2.5%). Factors identified as contributing to depression were academic pressure from heavy workload, poor marks, and/or high frequency of assessments (90, 70.3%), financial constraints (85, 66.4%), family issues (42, 32.8%), and relationship problems (41, 32.0%). The most used coping mechanism was social media (111, 86.7%), followed by talking or discussing with friends, family, or relatives (98, 76.5%), and listening to music (87, 68.0%). Conclusion: The result of this study concludes that depression among health sciences students is high. Therefore, the university management should take proactive actions toward students’ mental health through taking strategies that will address the identified contributing factors and strengthen positive coping mechanisms.