ArticlePloS one2023
Depression and associated factors in medical students in Acapulco during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Subjective academic achievement and suicide behavior among university students in Ghana: A moderated mediation of financial stress and depression.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- A critical narrative review of the experiences of Latinas, Hispanic, or Spanish origin (LHS+) women in medical field using Latina/Chicana feminist perspective.Medical education online · 2025Review
- Gender differences in the relationship between mental health and academic performance among undergraduate students at a medical school in Shanghai: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Manifestations of psychological distress in students from different social groups at the University of São Paulo.Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S P · 2025Article
- Anxiety and Depression Disorders in Undergraduate Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrative Literature Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Review
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education: Assessment of student performance in computer science.PloS one · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDepression is common in medical students and the Mexican state of Guerrero has the highest rates of depression in the country. Acapulco, the seat of the state medical school, is a tourist destination that experienced early high rates of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic closed all schools in Mexico, obliging a shift from face-to-face to virtual education. In this new context, medical students faced challenges of online teaching including inadequate connectivity and access technologies. Prolonged isolation during the pandemic may have had additional mental health implications.
aimAssess depression prevalence and its associated factors affecting medical students in Acapulco, Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsA cross-sectional survey of students of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, in November 2020. After informed consent, students completed a self-administered questionnaire collating socio-demographic, academic and clinical variables, major life events and changes in mood. The Beck inventory provided an assessment of depression. Bivariate and multivariate analyses relied on the Mantel-Haenszel procedure to identify factors associated with depression. We estimated the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals.
results33.8% (435/1288) of student questionnaires showed evidence of depression in the two weeks prior to the study, with 39.9% (326/817) of young women affected. Factors associated with depression included female sex (OR 1.95; 95%CI 1.48-2.60), age 18-20 years (OR 1.36; 95%CI 1.05-1.77), perceived academic performance (OR 2.97; 95%CI 2.16-4.08), perceived economic hardship (OR 2.18; 95%CI 1.57-3.02), and a family history of depression (OR 1.85; 95%CI 10.35-2.54). Covid-19 specific factors included a life event during the pandemic (OR 1.99; 95%CI 1.54-2.59), connectivity problems during virtual classes and difficulties accessing teaching materials (OR 1.75; 95%CI 1.33-2.30).
conclusionsThe high risk of depression in medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with perceived academic performance and technical barriers to distance learning, in addition to known individual and family factors. This evidence may be useful for the improvement of programs on prevention and control of depression in university students.
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