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Prevalence and changes in depressive symptoms among postgraduate students: A systematic review and meta‐analysis from 1980 to 2020
Abstract
Education actively helps us develop our well‐being and health, but postgraduate students are at high risk of depression. The prevalence of depression symptoms varies from 6.2% to 84.7% among them, and its changes throughout the years remains unclear. The present study aimed to estimate the real prevalence of depression symptoms among postgraduate students and the changes from 1980 to 2020. Thirty‐seven primary studies with 41 independent reports were included in the meta‐analysis (none reports were in high‐quality, three were medium‐to‐high quality, 20 were low‐to‐medium quality, and 18 were low‐quality), involving 27,717 postgraduate students. The pooled prevalence of overall, mild, moderate, and severe depression symptoms was 34% (95% CI: 28–40, I 2 = 98.6%), 27% (95% CI: 22–32, I 2 = 85.8%), 13% (95% CI: 8–21, I 2 = 97.3%), and 8% (95% CI: 6–11, I 2 = 81.0%), respectively. Overall, the prevalence of depression symptoms remained relatively constant through the years following 1980 (overall: β = −0.12, 95% CI: [−0.39, 0.15], p = 0.39; mild: β = 0.24, 95% CI: [−0.02, 0.51], p = 0.07; moderate: β = −0.24, 95% CI: [−0.75, 0.26], p = 0.34; severe: β = 0.13, 95% CI: [−0.25, 0.51], p = 0.50). Doctoral students experienced more depressive symptoms than did master's students (43% vs. 27%; Q = 2.23, df = 1, p = 0.13), and studies utilising non‐random sampling methods reported a higher prevalence of mild depression and lower moderate depression symptoms than those that used random sampling (overall: 34% vs. 29%; Q = 0.45, df = 1, p = 0.50; mild: 29% vs. 21%; Q = 1.69, df = 1, p = 0.19; moderate: 16% vs. 25%; Q = 1.79, df = 1, p = 0.18; severe: 8% vs. 9%; Q = 0.13, df = 1, p = 0.72) despite these differences was not statistically significant. The prevalence of depression symptoms was moderated by the measurements and the quality of primary studies. More than one‐third of postgraduates reported depression symptoms, which indicates the susceptibility to mental health risk among postgraduates. School administrators, teachers, and students should take joint actions to prevent mental disorders of postgraduates from increasing in severity.
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In the citing paper
“Average symptom severity typically falls in the mild range9–11.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“Despite the growing literature on this topic35–42, most reviews and meta-analyses have focused on depression, anxiety or suicidal ideation, with prevalence and severity estimates limited to depression10 and GAD9.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“These studies identified several study-level moderators. Prevalence estimates were generally lower in studies with random sampling and higher study quality, and both prevalence and severity estimates varied depending on which type of measurement scale was used.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“One meta-analysis of doctoral students reported that 36% experienced mild, 12% moderate and 9% severe depressive symptoms10.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“To date, only two meta-analyses have empirically examined such moderators—and only in relation to depressive10 and anxiety symptoms9.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“recent studies suggest that this population experiences a disproportionate degree of psychological distress, including clinically defined syndromes such as depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and burnout, or individual symptoms such as stress, poor sleep and suicidal ideation1,9–11.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“In contrast, sample-level moderators such as national income level, gender and calendar year showed no consistent effects.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“These findings are broadly consistent with those of other meta-analyses10,11, which also reported no consistent effect of gender, country income level or academic system.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“Our findings are broadly consistent with those of other meta-analyses, but they fall on the higher end of previously reported ranges of 21–24% for depressive symptoms and 17–30% for anxiety symptoms9–11.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“These findings are in line with those of previous meta-analyses, which found that low-quality primary studies or those using non-random sampling techniques reported higher prevalence rates for depressive10 and anxiety symptoms11.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“While the prevalence moderately increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, our findings indicate that elevated rates of depressive symptoms in particular and psychological distress in general predate the pandemic and have persisted over time10.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“However, both the use of self-rating scales and convenience sampling appear to inflate effect sizes10,85.”
From Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
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Metadata
- Authors
- Guo, L., Fan, H., Xu, Z., Li, J., Chen, T., Zhang, Z., & Yang, K.
- Venue
- Stress and Health
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2021-04-19
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 835-847
- ISSN
- 1532-3005
- 1532-2998
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 12
- Language
- en
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