- : Ms Word, Ms Word Format
- : 90 Pages
- : ₦5,000
- : 1-5 Chapters
- Click to DOWNLOAD Materials
COMPARISON OF PREVALENCE OF MENTAL DISTRESS, HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOUR AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF UNDERGRADUATES IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA
Abstract
Background: Mental distress is prevalent and increasing in tertiary institutions. It is potentially a major contributor to the burden of mental disorders, which is among the six leading causes of disability in young people worldwide. The study compared the prevalence of mental distress, help-seeking behaviour and quality of life; identified factors associated with mental distress, and determined relationship between quality of life and mental distress of undergraduates in public and private universities in Osun State, Nigeria.
Methods: This study was conducted among 488 respondents from a public university and 422 respondents from a private university in Osun State, using a comparative cross sectional design. Multistage sampling technique was employed. Information was collected with the use of pretested semi-structured self-administered questionnaire. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS version 20. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted and level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05
Results: The mean age and standard deviation for the public university was 20.74 ± 2.19 years and the private university was 19.02 ± 2.27 years with a significant difference (p<0.001). The prevalence of mental distress was 40.4% in the public university and was similar to the 43.6% in the private university (p=0.324).
Loneliness was a factor significantly associated with mental distress in both public (p<0.001) and private (p<0.001) universities. Other factors significantly associated with mental distress in the public university were gender (p=0.002) and having insufficient finance in school
(p=0.018) while in private university, poor spirituality (p=0.019), poor relationship with friends
2
(0.041), and not having close friends (p=0.022) were the other factors significantly associated with mental distress. Type of university, age, year of study and socioeconomic status were not significantly associated with mental distress in both universities (p>0.05).
All the respondents with mental distress in the public and private universities sought help in the last 12 months; with majority in public (88.3%) and private (78.8%) universities reporting to have sought help from informal sources. A significantly higher proportion of respondents in the private university (21.2%) sought help from formal sources in the last 12 months compared with respondents in the public university (11.7%) (p=0.012).
The overall Quality of life (QoL) rating for respondents in both universities had the highest mean score, while the environment domain had the least mean score. Respondents in private university compared with public university had significantly higher mean scores in the overall QoL rating (81.4 vs 76.6), physical (71.4 vs 69.4) and environment (61.5 vs 59.2) domains.
(p<0.05).
There was a moderate negative correlation between mental distress, and the physical (r=0.567) and psychological(r=-0.585) domains of QoL while other domains showed a weak negative correlation with mental distress for respondents in both universities(r< – 0.04)
Conclusion: The prevalence of mental distress is high in both universities with informal sources of help seeking frequently reported. Undergraduates in the private university have higher quality of life compared with their counterparts in the public university. The relationship between the mental distress and quality of life was inverse. There is need for the university management to include periodic mental health education into student orientation programmes.
