Pattern of Depression among Secondary School Adolescents in Ilesa, South West, Nigeria

Depression in adolescents could be highly distressing and may exert a huge burden on the growing individuals transiting to adulthood. Adolescents are confronted with high expectations and societal demands which may place serious burdens on them and lead to depression. This study intended to study the pattern of depression among adolescents in Ilesa with a view to providing information that could serve as an empirical basis for strategic interventions for the affected adolescents.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 302 secondary school adolescents in Ilesa East LGA. These subjects were selected using a multistage sampling method. Adolescents' socio-demographics were assessed with a socio-demographics questionnaire. The PHQ-9 was used to assess depression among adolescents. Data was entered and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21 (SPSS 21) and analyzed. The test of associations between the outcome variable and categorical variables was done with Chi- square and p<0.05 was taken as the level of significance.

The results showed that seventy-nine out of the 302 adolescents screened with PHQ 9 had depression with prevalence of 26.2%. The prevalence of depression was significantly higher in adolescent girls than in boys (χ2=9.782,p=0.002); and significantly pronounced in early adolescents compared to the middle and late adolescents (χ2=14.205, p=0.001).

The Prevalence of depression was high among the adolescents in Ilesa and commoner among the early and females' adolescents.