Background: Depression is a common health problem, ranking third after cardiac and respiratory diseases
as a major cause of disability. There is evidence to suggest that university students are at higher risk of
depression, despite being a socially advantaged population, but the reported rates have shown wide
variability across settings.
Purpose: To explore the prevalence of depression in university students.
Method: PubMed, PsycINFO, BioMed Central and Medline were searched to identify studies published
between 1990 and 2010 reporting on depression prevalence among university students. Searches used
a combination of the terms depression, depressive symptoms, depressive disorders, prevalence,
university students, college students, undergraduate students, adolescents and/or young adults. Studies
were evaluated with a quality rating.
Results: Twenty-four articles were identified that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Reported
prevalence rates ranged from 10% to 85% with a weighted mean prevalence of 30.6%.
Conclusions: The results suggest that university students experience rates of depression that are substantially
higher than those found in the general population. Study quality has not improved since 1990