The prevalence of depressive symptoms among international students studying at Ege University Faculties of Medicine and dentistry, the perceived need for mental health and their level of utilization

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms, the risk factors associated and the level of utilization of mental health services among international students studying at Ege University Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry in the 2017-2018 academic year. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. The research group's universe was all international students studying at Ege University, Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry in the 2017-2018 academic year. A total of 145 international students were attending classes in the specified academic year, 110 of which were in the medical faculty and the rest 35 were in the dentistry faculty. 84.1% of these students could be reached where 73.8% (n = 90) and 26.2% (n = 32) were medical and dentistry students respectively. The presence of depressive symptoms was taken as the dependent variable of the study which was assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) scale. The independent variables were seen under seven headings, namely, demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, health behaviors-habits, social relationships, academic characteristics, the encounter with discrimination and the need for mental health service perception and service use. During data collection, students were reached in their classrooms or in the library. SPSS (PASW Statistics 2018) package was used in data analysis. Chi-square test and other descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were mainly used in statistical analysis. Findings: The respondents came from a total of 39 countries. The average age of the participants was 23,51 ± 3,47. 93.5% of the students think that the income level of their family is moderate or good. Two out of every ten students reported having financial difficulties. When asked about their satisfaction with being studying medicine and the quality of the training received 81.9% and 48.4% of the research group respectively stated that they are satisfied. 66.4% of the participants were satisfied with the level of academic achievement at the Medical / Dentistry faculty. 44.3% of the students have pointed out being an ideal profession since childhood was the reason for studying medicine or dentistry. The students who think that they can communicate positively with the faculty constitute half of the research group. In the case of relationship with their colleagues, this percentage has risen to 72.9 percent. 63.3% of the study group has indicated that there is no a counseling unit for mental health problems or they do not know if there is one. 22.1% of the students thought that consulting with a professional counselor such as a doctor, psychologist, social worker would do good for them, but only 6.6% of the respondents had seen any counselor. According to the CES-D scale of the study group, with an average score of 17.43 ± 10.25 the prevalence of depressive symptoms was found to be 35.2%. In the medical faculty, first and second year students were found to be more depressive, while no difference was observed among study years in the dental faculty. A statistically significant relationship was revealed between studying medicine/dentistry and satisfaction with the quality of training received with depressive symptoms. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was found to be lower among the students who had a good relationship with their colleagues, those having at least one friend whom they could easily share their problems with, and those who receive moral support from their family. When seen in terms of perceived financial difficulties and the job of the head of the household, a significant difference across the groups was observed. On the other hand, no significant relationship between communication with the faculty members and depressive symptoms was observed. Gender, age, marital status, place of birth, place where the largest part of the student's life was spent, place where the student's family currently lives, living in Turkey from birth and place of stay during the academic period were not found to have a significant relationship with being depressive. Conclusion: This study shows that the prevalence of depression in medical / dental students is high and there is a similar trend in studies conducted around the world. It has an influence on the prevalence of depression in terms of the education year and the education received and the quality. In the medical faculty, an increase in the year of study has been found to decrease the frequency of depressive manifestation, but there is no difference between the study years in the dental medicine faculty.