Publications (2)4.05 Total impact
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Article: Self-reported depression in first-year nursing students in relation to socio-demographic and educational factors: a nationwide cross-sectional study in Sweden.
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ABSTRACT: Higher education has been associated with distress and depression in students, and concerns that the proportion students afflicted is increasing have been raised. Findings on student depression have often been based on age-homogeneous samples leaving the results vulnerable to a confounding of student experience, transition from adolescence to adulthood and age on depression. We investigated self-reported depression and its associations with sociodemographic and educational factors in a demographically diverse student population of first-year nursing students in Sweden. A base-line survey in a nation-wide cohort of 1,700 first-year nursing students was conducted in the fall of 2002. The participants answered a mailed questionnaire containing questions on sociodemography, educational factors, and health. Depression was measured by the Major Depression Inventory and associations to sociodemographic and educational factors were tested in logistic regressions. The overall response rate was 72.9%, and 10.2% (5.7% men, 10.7% women) reported depression. Younger age (<30), female gender, immigration from outside of Europe, high workload, dissatisfaction with education, low self-efficacy, and conflicts between personal and college demands were associated with high prevalence of depression. Prior work experience, less need for financial support, and work for pay during term time were related to low prevalence of depression. Older students and those who were parents reported home-college conflicts more often. Nursing students as a group show high levels of self-reported depression but the prevalence is affected by age with a higher proportion depressed among younger students. Even though older students and those who were parents show less depression, they were more vulnerable to home-college conflicts. As older students and parents constitute a large proportion of nursing students, it is of importance to find ways to lessen the effects of the obstacles they encounter in the education.Social Psychiatry 03/2010; 46(4):299-310. · 2.05 Impact Factor -
Article: Change in depressive symptoms over higher education and professional establishment - a longitudinal investigation in a national cohort of Swedish nursing students.
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ABSTRACT: There are indications of a high prevalence of psychological distress among students in higher education and also that distress increases over the course of study. However, not all studies on student distress controlled for sociodemographic differences and few followed development of distress over an extended period through professional establishment. We investigated if there is an independent effect of time in education and the first two years in the profession on depressive symptoms and mapped change over the period in a national cohort of students. Data came from LANE, a nation-wide longitudinal panel survey of Swedish nursing students (N = 1700) who responded to annual questionnaires over five years from 2002 to 2007. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Major Depression Inventory and change over time analysed in a linear mixed effects model for repeated measures. There was a significant change in level of depressive symptoms over time: an increase from the first to later years in education and a decrease to levels similar to baseline after graduation and a year in the profession. The change in symptoms remained significant after adjustment for sociodemographic factors (p < 0.01). Symptom levels differed due to age, gender, household composition and prior nurse assistant training but change over time was similar in all groups. The correlation among the repeated measures, representing within individual correlation over time, varied between 0.44-0.60. The findings indicate an independent but transitional effect of time in education and professional establishment on depressive symptoms. We think heightened distress over education abates as the graduate accommodates to the profession. Nevertheless, within education, the differences in depressive symptoms associated to demographic factors can help identify student groups more vulnerable to distress. Also, as individual differences in distress seem to persist over time, perhaps students highly distressed in the beginning of education can be helped by awareness among educators of the elevated levels of distress in late education.BMC Public Health 01/2010; 10:343. · 2.00 Impact Factor
