Depression and associated factors in medical students in Acapulco during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Depression is common in medical students and the Mexican state of Guerrero has the highest rates of depression in the country. Acapulco, the seat of the state medical school, is a tourist destination that experienced early high rates of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic closed all schools in Mexico, obliging a shift from face-to-face to virtual education. In this new context, medical students faced challenges of online teaching including inadequate connectivity and access technologies. Prolonged isolation during the pandemic may have had additional mental health implications. AIM: Assess depression prevalence and its associated factors affecting medical students in Acapulco, Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of students of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, in November 2020. After informed consent, students completed a self-administered questionnaire collating socio-demographic, academic and clinical variables, major life events and changes in mood. The Beck inventory provided an assessment of depression. Bivariate and multivariate analyses relied on the Mantel-Haenszel procedure to identify factors associated with depression. We estimated the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: 33.8% (435/1288) of student questionnaires showed evidence of depression in the two weeks prior to the study, with 39.9% (326/817) of young women affected. Factors associated with depression included female sex (OR 1.95; 95%CI 1.48–2.60), age 18–20 years (OR 1.36; 95%CI 1.05–1.77), perceived academic performance (OR 2.97; 95%CI 2.16–4.08), perceived economic hardship (OR 2.18; 95%CI 1.57–3.02), and a family history of depression (OR 1.85; 95%CI 10.35–2.54). Covid-19 specific factors included a life event during the pandemic (OR 1.99; 95%CI 1.54–2.59), connectivity problems during virtual classes and difficulties accessing teaching materials (OR 1.75; 95%CI 1.33–2.30). CONCLUSIONS: The high risk of depression in medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with perceived academic performance and technical barriers to distance learning, in addition to known individual and family factors. This evidence may be useful for the improvement of programs on prevention and control of depression in university students.