Depressive symptoms associated with loneliness and physical activities among graduate university students in Bangladesh: findings from a cross-sectional pilot study

In low-resource settings like Bangladesh, there is a dearth of research on the mental health of university students. This pilot study aimed to identify the prevalence of depressive symptoms, loneliness, and physical activities as well as the associated factors of depressive symptoms among graduate students in a public university of Bangladesh. This cross-sectional study was carried out among 323 graduate students between February 2019 and May 2019. By the convenience sampling technique, data were collected by a pretested, structured questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the validated Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) tool with a cut-off score of ≥10 vs. less; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) loneliness scale was applied to assess loneliness, International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) scale was used to measure physical activity level. The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms was 52% and about 43% of participants felt most lonely. About 32.8% of students were involved in low physical activity. Being female, from lower income families, having poor academic performance, experiencing shorter sleep time, lower physical activity, and being lonely were potential risk factors for depressive symptoms among graduate university students. A positive correlation was found between loneliness and depressive symptoms of students (r = 0.367, p < 0.001). The higher prevalence of depressive symptoms among Bangladeshi graduate university students suggests the need for situation analysis, confirmatory clinical diagnosis, in-depth qualitative explorations, and large-scale surveys to explore the burden of such disorders and design appropriate low-intensity interventions like implementing student counselling service, offering mental assistance or other mental health support program in the country.