Basma Damiri
Basma Damiri*1, Zaher Nazzal2, Ahmad Farhoud2, Omar Safarini2, Nesma Ghanim2, Ahmad M. Abuhassan3, Abdulsalam Alkaiyat4, Hamdallah Taya2, Marah Qadous2, Yara Abu Elhija2. 1Medicine and Health Science Faculty, Drug, and Toxicology Division, An-Najah National University, Palestine; 2Medicine and Health Science Faculty, Department of Medicine, An-Najah National University, Palestine; 3An-Najah National University Hospital, Department of Neurology, An-Najah National University, Palestine; 4Medicine and Health Science Faculty, Department of Public Health, An-Najah National University, Palestine. *Corresponding Author.
Background: Depression is associated with a noticeable decline in academic performance and may contribute in increasing the risk of substance abuse. University students are also more susceptible to use cognitive enhancers/psychoactive substances to improve their vigilance and attention. We aimed to investigate the association between tobacco smoking and energy drinks (ED) consumption among university students in the West Bank, Palestine with depression during Coronavirus-19 (COVID19) pandemic and subsequent quarantine.
Methods: Self-administrated questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory were used to assess the association of depression and cognitive enhancers and psychostimulants use among university students (n=1051) at An-Najah National University in 2020.
Results: The prevalence of depression among students was 33.1% (95%CI: 30.3-36.1%); 4.3% severe, 8.8% moderate, and 20.1% mild depression. Cigarette smoking was associated with all levels of depressions, severe depression (OR: 4.5, p-value 0.001), moderate depression (OR: 3.3, p-value <0.001), and mild depression (OR: 2.3, p-value 0.002). No associations between depression and water-pipe, e-cigarettes, ED, coffee, tea, and chocolates were found (p-value ≥0.05). Medical students were less likely to have severe depression (OR: 0.215, p-value 0.015) than students in health sciences and non-medical fields
Conclusion: The results of this suggest the urgent need to address depression and risk factors associated with it among Palestinian university students especially tobacco smokers by educating students about mental health, identifying high-risk students, and offering easily accessible psychological help. They prompt the need to broaden the spectrum of studies to include and compare students from various academic fields instead of only focusing on medical students.