Prevalence of Mental Health Problems Among Undergraduate Students at the Universidad de Los Andes

Background Mental health in the university population has become in recent years a common and serious problem worldwide. There are various studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses that have been carried out over the past 5 years, which show very worrying figures. In the USA, it has been described in medical students that between 6.0% and 66.5% have depression, between 7.7% and 65.5% anxiety disorders, and between 12.2% and 96.7% refer having stress. In China, on the other hand, a study was reported in 2016 that revealed a prevalence of depression of 23.8%. In Latin America we find a study carried out in Brazil among medical students, which shows a prevalence of depression of 30.6%, anxiety disorders of 32.9, and stress of 49.9%, among other indicators described. In Chile, during 2019 appears the results of the "First National Survey of Mental Health among university students", surveying over 600 students from three universities in Chile. This study showed that 46% of the students presented depressive symptoms, 46% had anxiety symptoms, 53.5% stress symptoms and 29.7% presented all three symptoms simultaneously. In addition, 5.1% of the students reported having suicidal thoughts at the time of the study.

There are multiple determinants that influence mental health, both social, biological, and psychological factors. Within these, the socioeconomic levels of the families of origin and the education attained by their parents stand out, but also the contexts of violence -in its multiple forms- to which university students may be exposed, levels of stress for academic reasons, discrimination for various reasons, in addition to poor health in general.

University students are a group that has certain characteristics in common that makes it particularly vulnerable in terms of their mental health. Among these factors, we can mention: the process of adaptation from the school environment to the university environment, the vocational uncertainty, being subjected to a constant academic workload, responding with demands of both their own and their environment (such as parents and society), and facing worries about entering into the world of work. In short, passing through the university is a period of constant changes, which demands self-management and support, but it also means an adaptation process that can help to eventually develop mental health problems.

At Universidad de los Andes there are no official published figures on the prevalence of mental health problems among university students, nor on possible associated factors among its students. It is important to have a clear and precise current status, as this would allow the implementation of prevention policies, interventions, and the creation of support networks that can help students' mental health.

General Aim:

The general aim of this project is to describe the mental health of the students of the Universidad de los Andes and its association with individual factors, especially academic stress, sense of university belonging, peer violence, substance abuse, and sleep habits.

Methodology Participants. All regular undergraduate students from first to last year of career and older than 18 years old from the Universidad de los Andes will be invited to participate. The various academic units and faculties have offered support and will join the study. Participation is voluntary.

Sample size. Random sampling will be considered for each stratum defined by the career and its year, the sample size is determined from the number of enrolled. For this sample calculation, it has been used as p = 0.1, considering that different studies have estimated the prevalence of suicidal ideation in the last year of 10% (10). A non-response of 20% is anticipated, therfore the sample size is increased by that percentage. A total of 4836 students are expected to participate.

Instruments. A detailed description of the instruments can be found in the Outcomes section of this protocol.