Mental Health of students at the Faculty of Public Health

Mental health of students plays a crucial part in their social and academic performance and in creating a healthy campus community. So assessing the mental health status of student is important for a healthy functioning student.

Our aim was to describe the mental health of international students at the Faculty of Public Health.

A cross sectional survey was used to analyze the mental health status of students. Data was collected during November 2015. A sample of year I-IV (N=124) international students were administered an anonymous self-administered questionnaire that included social support, perceived stress, psychological distress (GHQ), sense of coherence (SOC), depression, and general questions on their studies.

The study had a response rate of 79.8%. More than three-quarter of the students was single. Almost one-fifth of the students had a severe lack of social support. More than half of the students had people at the university who gave them support and encouragement. More than 70% of the students didn’t have any family members with psychiatric or psychology history. 70% of the students had a good to very good perceived health. Almost two-fifth of the students scored above the threshold on the GHQ indicating psychological distress. About 88% of the students didn’t have any previous psychiatric or psychological history. More than half of the students were on a normal range on the Zung Depression Scale, 42 % scored in the mild-to-moderate range of depression and 1person in the severe range. A mean score of 62.8 was found for SOC, with a minimum of 43 and a maximum of 83.
When compared our results to previous surveys among Hungarian students at the Faculty of Public Health, in the English students the proportion of those who suffered from mild to severe depression was 13% higher. The proportion of the Hungarian and English students scored on the GHQ-12 scale indicating notable psychological distress was about the same range. Further research is needed to know why there is a slight increase in depression of English students and psychological consultation should be recommended to students as part of their medical check up requirements.