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Quality of Life and Depression in German Medical Students
at Foreign Universities
Author: Kamiar-K. Rueckert
Scientific Research Supervisior: Vladimirs V. Voicehovskis
Riga Stradinš University, Riga, Latvia
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Medical students have a higher exposure to stressors. It includes the
university curriculum, a lack of social interaction outside their profession, as
well as exposure to possible diseases. Long time exposure to stress is known
to increase the prevalence for depression. [1] Studies have shown a
significantly higher prevalence than the average population for medical
students to be at risk for depression. [2]
Migration, whether it is forced or voluntary has an effect on the mental health
and especially depression. [3,4] The short term stay of most
Students may lead to a separation, rather than integrationE! into the native
society. Migration with separation from the native society has shown to have a
higher risk of depression. [5] It is recognized as a multifactorial influence.
Migrants not only have to get acquainted with a new culture and a new
language, but they are also forced to accept this as a normal procedure of
Immigration. Other influences are the loss of affiliation.
We chose the topic “Depression and Quality of Life in German Medical
Students Studying at Foreign Universities” because it combines two factors
increasing the prevalence for depression, as well as being connected with a
significantly lowering of the QoL. Being exposed to a new culture and
language, as well as having to deal with the influences of medical education is
likely to significantly increase the prevalence of depression as well as
decrease the Quality of Life.
No previous study regarding the intercultural well being of German medical
students at foreign universities was conducted, therefore the available
literature is abundant and most references will refer to the level of depression
and QoL in medical students without any regard to migration.
Aim
The aim of this research was to measure the QoL in German medical students
at international universities and to measure the prevalence for depressive
symptoms among the students as well as comparing the results of different
universities.
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Two online-based standardized psychological questionnaires were used to
investigate medical students. The PHQ-9 for the evaluation of depression was
used due to its shortness, simplicity, high sensitivity and specificity and high
reliability, as well as its availability as a non-commercial questionnaire. Based
on 9 questions it defines the level of depression by scoring each question from
0 to 3, providing a 0 to 27 severity score. Ranking 0-4 as none-minimal
depression severity, 5-9 as mild depression severity, 10-14 as moderate
depression severity, 15-19 to moderate severe depressive and 20-27 as
severe depression severity. The questionnaire suggests a treatment starting
from a moderate depression severity [6]. The PHQ-9 was conducted in the
German version due to its availability and to assure that the sample of the
survey were in fact German medical students.
The Q-les-Q-SF is a questionnaire for the sensitive measurement of the
degree of enjoyment and satisfaction by the author J. Endicott [7]. We used a
self-translated version of the Q-les-Q-SF from the original English version into
a German version. This was done because no liable Q-Les-Q-SF version was
found in the German language. The Q-les-Q-SF was chosen to not only
display the QoL in the medical students, but also its correlation to the different
grades of depression being exposed by the medical students. The Quality of
life is a good measurement to display the well being or lack thereof in the
interviewed students. It includes the emotional, social and physical aspects of
the students’ lives that might be affected by the aforementioned multifactorial
stressors. The raw score of the Q-les-Q-SF is converted to a per cent
maximum score with a range of 0-100, where higher scores indicate better
QoL.
The examples of the two questionnaires can be found here at the end of the
research with regard to their language (see attachment No.1 and 2).
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The total number of students interviewed was 230 from the following European
countries: Latvia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria and Lithuania. 4 Invalid replies
occurred, which lowered the total number of students to 226. The distribution
of students is as followed: 129 in L, 60 in H, 27 in R, 8 in B and 2 in Li. The
number of students from different countries differs in respect to the student
population. Unfortunately, no department from H, R, B and Li replied to our
request, therefore the samples relied on the communication with student
organisations and independent student groups. The online survey was
conducted from the 05.05.2015 to 24.06.2015 to ensure that the data was
collected from the middle of the semester. This was designed in order to
capture the average periods of student’s lives and to avoid unusual stress,
such as exam periods. The number of German medical students studying at
foreign universities is not exactly known, but can be assumed to be above
3000, due to L having approximately 700!HIJ, Li 72!H)J. Unfortunately the other
numbers can only be assumed, due to no official information being available.
H has over 4000 international students, of which nearly half are German, and
R and B do not display any information. Our sample size of 226 is small in
comparison to the actual number of German medical students, but the
randomized cross section of the students and the semesters ensures a
representative result.
A control group was not necessary since there are sufficient studies of the
Depression and Quality of life in the general population were found.
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Males
Females
Sample size
109
117
Preclinical semester
67
86
Clinical semester
42
31
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The preclinical semesters are the 1 - 4. Semester. While the clinical semesters
are considered to be the 5 - 12. Semester. Unfortunately the questionnaire is
missing three results in regard of this question. The results show that 2/3 of
the sample was in there preclinical semesters (n=153) and approximately 1/3
was already in the clinical semesters (n=73).
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Males
Females
Latvia
55
74
Hungary
28
32
Bulgaria
5
3
Romania
20
7
Lithuania
1
1
The results show a gender well-balanced questionnaire. Since the study was
randomized it can be assumed that the result is close to the normal distribution
of gender with in the medical schools. Deviations in R could be due to the
small sample size.
Table No.3
Number of students
1. Semester
23
2. Semester
57
3. Semester
36
4. Semester
37
5. Semester
25
6. Semester
20
7. Semester
9
8. Semester
9
9. Semester
1
10. Semester
7
11. Semester
1
12. Semester
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If we divide the distribution in perspective of the different semesters, it should
be mentioned that those semesters are not equally presented, and therefore
slight alteration of results can be expected.
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Overall prevalence of mild to severe depression was found to be 59,7%. A
clinically significant prevalence rate of moderate to high severity of depressive
symptoms of 23.5% was found. All in all, mild depressive symptoms were
found in 40,2% of the students, moderate depressive symptoms were 14,2%,
moderate-severe depressive symptoms were 6,6% and severe depressive
symptoms made up 2,7%. In Women, moderate-severe and severe
depressive symptoms were found twice as often.
In L the prevalence of clinical significant depression among their students was
found to be 15,5%, H to be 46,7%, R 14,8%, B 0% and Li 50%. These values
are influenced by the small sample size. The small sample size of B and Li
may change the results.
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The mean QoL measured was 54,86%. The QoL decreases significantly with
the intensity of the depressive symptoms. Non-minimal depressive symptoms
show a QoL of 70.12% with a steady decline to 37.6% for severe depressive
symptoms. Pic. No. 3 illustrates the decrease of QoF in respect of the severity
of depressive symptoms and shows the QoF in none to minimal depression.
Unfortunately no German study was found to compare these results with
German’s general population.
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Pic. No 3
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The following graphic illustrates the level of depression in regard to the gender
of the students. Red being the female students, blue being the male students.
The graphic shows increased moderate and severe depressive symptoms in
females.
Picture No. 4
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The mean QoL of 54,86% was observed in German medical students studying
at foreign universities. A significant decrease in the QoL was observed from
none-minimal depressive symptoms to severe depressive symptoms (Pic. No.
3).
The prevalence of clinically depressive symptoms among the German medical
students is significantly high with 23.5%. Our study concluded a 2.4 times
higher prevalence of depression among German medical students studying at
foreign universities.
In L the prevalence of clinical significant depression among their students was
found to be 15,5%, H to be 46,7%, R 14,8%. The values of R and Li are
influenced by the small sample size. We therefore not mentioned them to
represent the country-specific value, yet are used in the overall analysis.
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Due to our results of the QoL among medical students with a mean of 54.86%
and 70.12% for students with none-minimal depressive symptoms, it can be
concluded that QoL is decreased in medical school in comparison to 83% in
the general population [10]. Yet we see that not only medical school is a
contributor to a low QoL but mainly the prevalence of depression. This raises
the question whether medical schools promote depressive symptoms.
Since other studies suggest a prevalence of depression among medical
students during their medical training between 5%-37.5% [11], we can
conclude that our results of 23,5% fit into the research about depressive
symptoms among medical students. Interestingly our study thereby excludes
the nationality as a significant contributor to the prevalence of depressive
symptoms. Our study (as well as other studies about depressive symptoms in
medical training) shown a significant increase in the prevalence of depression
in comparison to the German general population between the age of 18 - 29
years (9.9%) [12].
These results conclude medical studies promote depressive symptoms. Yet
another question that could be raised is whether medical studies attract
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students prone to depressive symptoms. This thesis could be rejected by a
study published in the Asian journal of psychiatry in 2016, that shows that the
prevalence of depression among entering medical students was low [13].
It seems like all in all, depression, as well as the low QoL are due to the
medical training. It can only be assumed that migration, different-learning
types, as well as other stressors are influencing the prevalence for depression
and QoL. Further studies should be conducted to examine the different
influences leading to depression and a low QoL.
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