Abera Getachew and Tefera Tekle
Background: Worldwide university students are at risk of catching various mental health disorders due to psychological problems they experience. Mental health disorders among University students represent half of the disorders; it is a growing public health problem which needs great attention too. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and correlates to mental health disorder among Madda Walabu University students. Methods: Institutional-based cross-sectional study design was used among 605 randomly selected undergraduate students in March, 2016. Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20) was used to assess mental health disorder. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS version 20. The correlates were computed using t-test and ANOVA results from bivariate analysis. Result: The study showed that 5.3% students had severe, 38.3% of students had moderate and 61.7% had mild level of mental health disorder. Most of the students 232(38.3%) had headache, 228(37.7%) had unhappy feelings and about 125(20.7%) students considered themselves as a worthless person. The result revealed that relatively female students had more mental health related pain and problems (M=5.92 and SD=4.41) than their counter parts (M=6.02 and SD=5.29). The independent t-test result indicated that there was statistically significant difference between regular and extension students in their mental health status (t=3.28, df=603, p<0.05). However, the ANOVA result shown that there is no statistically significant difference (F (3,601)=2.470, P<0.05) among students of year one, two, three and four with regard to their mental health disorder status. Conclusion: Nearly half of (43.6%) the students had mental health disorders. Designing prevention and treatment programs to address the identified causes and factors are important.
