SynthesisPublic health reviews2024
Depressive Symptoms Among Higher Education Students in Germany-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Public health reviews, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Open-label placebos reduce hair cortisol concentrations and psychological distress - a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Emotional Eating and Its Associations with the Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Trends in anxiety and depressive symptoms among adults in Norway based on eight population-based surveys from 1995 to 2024.Discover mental health · 2026Article
- Institution-Level and Individual Factors Associated with Student Mental Health in Germany: A Multilevel Analysis of StudiBiFra Data.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Perceived antisemitism and the mental health of Jewish university students in Germany: a quantitative comparative study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Better together: Group-level social dynamics predict individuals' psychological adjustment during a major life transition.Journal of social and personal relationships · 2026Article
- Article
- Digital public health interventions for the promotion of mental well-being and health behaviors among university students: a rapid review.BMC public health · 2025Review
- Symptoms of anxiety and depression among health and social science students: A multicenter study.Heliyon · 2025Article
- Association of chronic stress during studies with depressive symptoms 10 years later.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Social-ecological factors associated with loneliness in university students: results from the German cross-sectional StudiBiFra study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Depressive and anxiety symptoms among university students during the later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany - Results from the COVID 19 German Student Well-being Study (C19 GSWS).Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objectives: Higher education students in Germany are vulnerable to depressive symptoms. Despite ample evidence, no comprehensive review has recently been conducted. Thus, our systematic review and meta-analysis aims at describing the extent to which students are affected by depressive symptoms. Methods: We searched three databases for articles reporting the prevalence rates of depressiveness among students in Germany published between 2002 and 2023. Pooled prevalence rates were calculated using random effects models, both for the overall sample and for subgroups categorized by gender, study setting, assessment instrument, and whether the study was conducted before or during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: The search yielded 992 records. After screening, 60 articles remained for data extraction. About one out of five students (21.1%) exhibits depressive symptoms. Pooled prevalence rates differ between subgroups, with higher rates during the COVID-19 pandemic than before (30.6% versus 18.0%) and with females being more affected than their male counterparts (29.0% versus 23.1%). Conclusion: This review underlines the urgency with which the mental health of students should be addressed at the (higher educational) policy level.
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