Cited by 286Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutMental Health Treatment and AccessCOVID-19 and Mental Health

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Prevalence of mental health problems among medical students in China: A meta-analysis

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Zeng, Wen, Chen, Ruiqi, Wang, Xingyue, Zhang, Qin, Deng, Wei·2019·Medicine

DOI 10.1097/md.0000000000015337PMC PMC6504335

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Abstract

Background: The prevalence of mental health problems in medical students has continuously increased and is higher than the prevalence of mental health problems in students with other majors, which could lead to undesirable consequences for the students and their future patients. In China, the current states of medical education and healthcare workplaces differ in certain areas from those in Western or other Asian countries. However, the mental health status of Chinese medical students has not been systematically analyzed. Objectives: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to summarize the prevalence of mental health problems in Chinese medical students. Methods: All cross-sectional studies that investigated the prevalence of any mental health problem among Chinese medical students were retrieved from the following databases: EMBASE, PubMed, PsycINFO, OVID, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. We accepted each individual trial's inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants. The National Institutes of Health Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies was adopted to appraise the methodological quality of each study. RevMan (version 5.3) was used to analyze the data. Results: Ten cross-sectional studies involving a total of 30,817 Chinese medical students were included. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and eating disorders were 29%, 21%, 11%, and 2%, respectively. Subgroup analysis revealed no significant differences in the prevalence of depression and suicidal ideation between genders and no significant difference in the prevalence of depression between individuals of different ages (20 years and older or younger than 20 years). Conclusions and implications of key findings: Chinese medical students have relatively high prevalence of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation but a low prevalence of eating disorders. Mental health problems in Chinese medical students should be taken seriously, and timely screening of and proper intervention in these mental health problems are highly recommended.

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Figure 1 Study flow diagram using the PRISMA flow chart.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Figure 2 Forest plot assessing the prevalence of depression among medical students in China. CI = confidence interval, SE = standard error.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Figure 3 Forest plot assessing the prevalence of depression among medical students in China, stratified by the gender of the participants. CI = confidence interval, SE = standard error.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Figure 4 Forest plot assessing the prevalence of depression among medical students in China, stratified by the mean age of the participants. CI = confidence interval, SE = standard error.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Figure 5 Forest plot assessing the prevalence of anxiety among medical students in China. CI = confidence interval, SE = standard error.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Figure 6 Forest plot assessing the prevalence of suicidal ideation among medical students in China, stratified by the gender of the participants. CI = confidence interval, SE = standard error.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Figure 7 Forest plot assessing the prevalence of suicidal ideation among medical students in China. CI = confidence interval, SE = standard error.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Figure 8 Forest plot assessing the prevalence of eating disorders among medical students in China. CI = confidence interval, SE = standard error.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Figure 9 Funnel plot assessing the prevalence of depression among medical students in China. SE = standard error.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

Figure 10 Plot of the sensitivity analysis, which was conducted by excluding 1 study each time and pooling the estimate for the rest of the studies.CC BY-NC-ND · PubMed Central

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Method
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“The background to this study was as follows: Compared to the general population and non-medical students, medical students reported more mental health issues [13,14,17,18,25,26,29].”
Result
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“In terms of university students and junior researchers, there is accumulating evidence for a relatively high prevalence of mental disorders in this population, including medical students (Rosenthal & Okie, 2005; Levecque et al. 2017; Pacheco et al. 2017; Zeng et al. 2019).”
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Biological Psychiatry and Psychopharmacology
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“This study revealed that 29% and 21% of medical students were suffering from depression and anxiety disorders, respectively.[34]”
Background
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Background
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Self-citation
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Authors: Zeng, W., Chen, R., Wang, X., Zhang, Q., & Deng, W.
Affiliations: Department of Graduate Medical Education
Department of Neurosurgery
Sichuan University (CN)
Corresponding author: Deng, Wei
ORCID: Chen, Ruiqi
Wang, Xingyue
Zhang, Qin
Deng, Wei
Venue: Medicine
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Published: 2019-05
Volume: 98
Issue: 18
Pages: e15337
ISSN: 0025-7974 (ISSN-L)
1536-5964
DOI: 10.1097/md.0000000000015337
PMC: PMC6504335
OpenAlex: W2942994841
Cited by: 286
References: 79
Citations by year: 2026: 28 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 2
FWCI: 5.59
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: gold
doi.org
Licence: cc-by-nc-nd
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 (unspecified)
Locations: Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders: Health and Family Planning Commission of Sichuan Province
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2012017yjsy200)
Topics: Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
Keywords: mental illness, medical students, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, prevalence, Chinese medical students, gender differences, age differences, mental health screening
MeSH terms: Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety, Feeding and Eating Disorders, Mental Disorders, China, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Education, Medical, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Students, Medical, Prevalence, Workplace, Young Adult, Suicidal Ideation

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Prevalence of mental health problems among medical students in China: A meta-analysis

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