Prevalence of Depression and Cognitive Distortion among a Cohort of Malaysian Tertiary Students

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of depression, cognitive distortion and their associated factors among a cohort of 400 Malaysia tertiary students, recruited from 40 colleges and universities located at East and West Malaysia. Participants were assessed using Becks Depression Inventory (BDI)-IA, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) and several self-designed questions. The prevalence of depression among tertiary students in Malaysia was 21.3%, with mean BDI and ATQ scores significantly lower (p<0.05) among males (9.6±8.6 and 55.0±19.0, respectively), compared to females (11.6±9.7 and 60.7±23.6, respectively). BDI scores were significantly different among fields of study (p=0.022), but not levels of study (p=0.154). Severity of depression had a strong correlation (r=0.821) with the level of cognitive distortion. Substance use was more prevalent among males during depression while suicidal thoughts were more prevalent among those tested to be depressed. Females and those found to be depressed were more prone to skip meal during depression. Understanding the relation between depression, cognitive distortion and its associated factors would benefit intervention effort among tertiary students, which is known to be a prone age group.