Abstract:
The purposes of this correlation study were to describe depression and its related factors among undergraduate nursing students studying in Thai Nguyen University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vietnam. Two hundred and sixty-one nursing students who met the inclusion criteria participated in this study. The self-administered
questionnaires consisted of students general information, the Center for Epidemiologic
Studies Depression scale (CES-D), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale and the Personal
Resource Questionnaire part II. Descriptive statistics, One-way ANOVA, and Pearsons product moment correlation coefficient were employed to analyze the data. The results revealed that 45.6 % of nursing students reported scores indicating depression (CES-D ≥ 16). Average mean score for depression of these participants was 14.98 (SD = 5.08). Self-esteem and social support had negative correlation with
depression (r = -.33, p < 0.01; r = -.31, p < 0.01). No significant difference of depression scores among the nursing students in different years of study. There was no significant correlation between depression and educational achievement (GPA). The
results obtained from this preliminary study brought about the important information regarding depression and its related factors among Vietnamese nursing students. Due to high prevalence of depression among nursing students, it highlights the fact that depression is an important mental health concern. Therefore, nursing educators, administrators, and nursing institutes, as well as other health professions should be aware of and find ways to minimize risk factors. Developing and delivering of therapeutic intervention attempting to prevent or reduce depression is recommended.