Iran Journal of Nursing

  Depression is the commonest psychiatric problem, in college students can be caused by exam anxiety, educational pressures, emotional problems and puberty. The prevalence of depression among students is estimated to be 10.54% to 64.9%. Controlling the problem is the result of first recognizing it in the students and to do so, we selected 134 college students and asked them to complete Beck questionnaire. The score more than 17 was to be diagnosed as depressed.

 The prevalence of depression in students whom were living in dormitory was 42.5%, also, 41.2% of girls and 45.9% of boys were in different levels of depression. Besides, we found a significant difference between the level of depression and their major, their health and welfare of their dormitory (P>0.05). Moreover, it was shown that in dormitories without a house mother and/or an expert one, the rate of depression was higher.

 Overall, factors such as not being familiar with the major they had selected, being far from family, felling unsecured for the future career, not having entertainment and welfare in city of Larestan, (where the research is conducted) were the causes of depression, respectively. The researcher recommends calm, happy and clean environments without stressors and with facilities for sports, and entertainments to be provided for university students.