Prevalence and Associated Factors of Mental Distress Among Private College Nursing Students in Gondar Town, North-West, Ethiopia, 2023

Agegnehu Amare Setegn^1*Niguse Ygzaw²Bizuneh Tesfaye²Enguday Trfeneh²Seblewengel Tinsae²Kiber Temesgen¹Gebremeskel Mesafint¹

• ¹Mizan Tepi University, Mīzan Teferī, Ethiopia
• ²College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Background: Mental distress(MD) is a range of symptoms and experiences of a person's internal life that are held to be troubling, confusing, or out of ordinary that affects over 25% of all people during their lives. Students with mental distress are more likely to experience negative consequences such as impaired cognitive functioning, learning disabilities, poor academic performance and substance abuse. This study aimed to fill a research gap to indicate the magnitude and its related factors.Methods An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Gondar town using a multi-stage stratified sampling technique to select the study participants. The Kessler-10 item scale was applied to measure the prevalence of mental distress. Bi-variable and Multivariable logistic regression analysis models were fitted and variables having a p-value < 0.05 with 95% CI in the multi-variable model were considered as statistically significant.The prevalence of mental distress among private college nursing students in the current study was 52.74% (95% CI (48.79, 56.66). On multivariable analysis; being female (AOR=2.8, 95%CI 1.50, 3.16), rural residency (AOR = 1.96, 95% CI 1.3, 2.95), having poor social support (AOR = 2.03,95% CI 1.20, 3.42), not participating in regular physical exercise (AOR = 3.28, 95% CI 1.68, 6.37), never attending guidance and counseling service (AOR=2.37, 95%CI 1.12, ii 4.99) and having family history of mental illness (AOR = 2.65, 95% CI 1.31, 5.35) were factors significantly associated with mental distress.The overall prevalence of mental distress in this study was notably high with associated factors including sex, residency, social support, participation in regular physical exercise, attending guidance and counseling services and family history of mental illness. Therefore, we recommend that the Ministry of Health and Education to intervene on enhancing guidance and counseling services and promoting regular physical exercise at collage level.