A comparative study of depression literacy between pharmacy and non-pharmacy students of a Nigerian university
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-07-2019-0035 |
| Pages | 114-124 |
| Date | 05 December 2019 |
| Published date | 05 December 2019 |
| Author | Deborah Oyine Aluh,Matthew Okonta,Valentine Odili |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Mental health education |
A comparative study of depression literacy
between pharmacy and non-pharmacy
students of a Nigerian university
Deborah Oyine Aluh, Matthew Okonta and Valentine Odili
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to assess and compare the knowledge and help-seeking
behaviorstoward depression among pharmacystudents and non-pharmacy students.
Design/methodology/approach –The study was a cross-sectional descriptive survey and was
carried out among undergraduate students of the oldest and largest university in Eastern Nigeria, the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Open-ended questions were used to assess the participants’
recognition of depression and their preferred source of help for a vignette character. The open-ended
responses were categorized based on the similarity of thematic content and presented as
frequencies/percentages.
Findings –A total of 118 out of the 200 pharmacy students sampled responded (59 percent)and 270
students out of the 300non-pharmacy students surveyed responded(90 percent). A significantly higher
proportion of pharmacy studentscorrectly labeled the vignette as depression (61.9 percent)compared
to non-pharmacy students (39.6 percent) (
x
2
¼16.57, p ¼<0.001). Psychologists were the most
recommended source of help by both groups of students surveyed. A statistically significant greater
proportion of pharmacy students recommended psychiatrists compared to non-pharmacy students
(
x
2
¼3.79, p¼0.044).There was a significant associationbetween academic level of study andability to
correctlylabel the vignette among pharmacy and non-pharmacy students[(
x
2
¼18.08, p <0.001),(
x
2
¼
10.35, p¼0.016)],respectively.
Originality/value –This is the first time the depressionliteracy of pharmacy students has been surveyed
in an African country. The findings from this study are interesting in the context of current efforts to
decrease the enormous treatment gap for depression by improving its recognition in community
pharmacysettings.
Keywords Undergraduates, Depression, Help-seeking, Pharmacy students
Paper type Research paper
Background
Depression is currently the most common cause of disability worldwide (Friedrich, 2017).
About 4.4 percent of the global population is reported to be living with depression (UN
News, 2017). A recent study by the World Bank showed that one in five Nigerians were
depressed and depression was associated with a lower labor force participation and
reduced investments in children’s schooling (World Bank Group, 2018). Another recent
study on the prevalence of depression among undergraduate students in a Nigerian
university showed a prevalence of 58.2percent among the students surveyed (Dabana and
Gobir, 2018). Depression has been consistently linked with suicide and suicide is a leading
cause of death among young people between 15 and 29 years old (Institute for Health
Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), 2018). Global efforts toward increasing mental health
awareness are particularly important since a lack of information is often associated with
negative attitudes toward mentally ill people. Stigmatization has been shown to make
Deborah Oyine Aluh and
Matthew Okonta are both
based at the Department of
Clinical Pharmacy and
Pharmacy Management,
University of Nigeria
Nsukka, Nsukka, Nigeria.
Valentine Odili is based at
the Department of Clinical
Pharmacy and Pharmacy
Practice, University of
Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
Received 17 July 2019
Revised 21 October 2019
Accepted 15 November 2019
PAGE114 jTHE JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH TRAINING, EDUCATION AND PRACTICEjVOL. 15 NO.2 2020,pp. 114-124, ©EmeraldPublishing Limited, ISSN 1755-6228 DOI10.1108/JMHTEP-07-2019-0035
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