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Cited by 279Student Stress and CopingMental Health Treatment and AccessHealthcare professionals’ stress and burnout

Prevalence of depression among Chinese university students: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Open access
Gao, Li, Xie, Yuanchen, Jia, Chunhua, Wang, Wei·2020·Scientific Reports
DOI 10.1038/s41598-020-72998-1PMC PMC7522998
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Abstract

Estimates of the depression prevalence among Chinese university students vary considerably across studies. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to comprehensively analyze the depression prevalence among Chinese university students. We searched four electronic databases with the search terms of depression, China, university student, and questionnaire. Studies reporting depression among Chinese university students were included in the analysis. Two reviewers independently extracted the data and assessed the qualities of the studies. The package of "meta" in R Foundation for Statistical Computing was used to calculate an overall proportion in a random-effects model with 95% confidence intervals. Subgroup analysis was conducted to analyze the influencing factors on the depression prevalence. Any conflict in the data analysis was discussed by all the reviewers. A total of 113 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The overall prevalence of depression among Chinese university students was shown to be 28.4% (n = 185,787), with 95%CI from 25.7 to 31.2%. The overall depression prevalence among Chinese university students was still relatively high. More efforts need to be done to provide better mental healthcare to university students in China.

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  • Internationally, prevalence rates of depression and anxiety among students are high, ranging from 25% to 34% in meta-analytic reviews of undergraduate students, irrespective of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “Internationally, prevalence rates of depression and anxiety are high among students, irrespective of the COVID-19 pandemic (Ibrahim et al. 2013), ranging from 25% to 34% in meta-analytic reviews of undergraduate students (Gao et al. 2020;Sheldon et al. 2021;Tung et al. 2018).”

    From Health-Promoting Learning Environments in Higher Education: A Scoping Review of Structural Interventions to Protect Student Mental Health (2024) · cites this paper as Gao et al. 2020

    The Results (Overall prevalence of depression) report a meta-analytic depression prevalence of 28.4% among Chinese university students, within the cited 25%–34% range. The Discussion also reports a 30.6% estimate from a global university-student meta-analysis. Gao et al. do not provide a corresponding anxiety estimate, and their own pooled result is limited to Chinese students; the pandemic clause is attached to a different citation. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Sorted by citations

Authors
Gao, L., Xie, Y., Jia, C., & Wang, W.
Affiliations
  • St. Michael's Hospital (CA)
  • Zhengzhou University (CN)
  • Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (CN)
Corresponding author
  • Gao, Li
  • Wang, Wei
ORCID
Venue
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2020-09-28
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
15897-15897
ISSN
2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41598-020-72998-1
PMC
PMC7522998
OpenAlex
W3088483622
Cited by
279
References
7
Citations by year
2026: 70 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 56 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 17
FWCI
4.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M650598)
  • International Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship Program
  • Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2019-JYB-JS-005)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
Keywords
depression, prevalence, university students, Chinese students, student mental health, mental health services, risk factors for depression
MeSH terms
China, Depression, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Male, Students, Universities, Prevalence

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