Depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students of College of Medicine, Hawler Medical University, Erbil, Iraq

Background and objective: Students of the college of medicine involve in a hard study and training for six years; which might adversely affect the student's mental health and physical condition. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students, and its association with different sociodemographic variables. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among students of the College of Medicine, Hawler Medical University from April to May 2017. This study included a randomly selected sample of 288 students. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire was used to collect data. The statistical package for the social sciences was used for data analysis. Pearson Chi-square and Fisher's Exact Test were used to finding the association between various variables and depression, anxiety, and stress. Results: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among medical students were 52.1%, 62.5%, and 45.1%, respectively. Male students were found to be more depressed than female students (63.6% vs. 42.3%) with a statistically significant association (P <0.001). Anxiety and stress were not significantly associated with gender. Anxiety among students from rural areas (88.9%) was significantly (P = 0.021) higher than students from urban areas (60.7%). The association of depression, anxiety, and stress with other variables was not significant. Conclusion: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among students was high. Male students were regarded as a risk factor for depression, while students from the rural areas were regarded at risk of anxiety.