Depression Among First Generation Medical Students and Non-First-Generation Medical Students in the West of Saudi Arabia

Depression is a major human blight. Globally, it is responsible for more disability than any other condition. Based on previous studies, medical students are at high risk for depression because of their stressful lifestyle. In the current study, we suspected a high prevalence of depression in FG medical students rather than their colleagues who are not FG. First-generation students are those whose parents did not attend college or obtained a college degree. Unfortunately, they struggle with difficulties in their academic life, such as financial wellness, psychological family stressors, and a lack of professional social networks. The mean well-being score was significantly higher among males (55.5 ± 21.6) compared to females (44.36 ± 23.14), p<0.001. The students from the Taif region showed significantly poor lower well-being scores (44.9 ± 21.95), whereas those from Makkah (54.53 ± 23.95) and Medina (54.08 ± 20.71) had higher scores (p<0.001). The well-being scores were significantly lower among those who visited a psychiatrist (42.79 ± 23.74) and those who were diagnosed with any psychiatric disorders (41.46 ± 22.22), p<0.001. Similarly, we observed that the students who had family members diagnosed with psychiatric disorders had significantly lower well-being scores (46.67 ± 23.88) compared to those who didn't have (50.69 ± 22.73), p=0.026). In this study, there were no significant differences in well-being between FG and non-FG medical student mean while there were statistically significant differences between the other different characteristic students.