Prevalência de transtornos mentais menores entre universitários da área da saúde

Abstract

Introduction: Minor Mental Disorders (MMD) refer to less severe psychiatric disorders. In

university students, the symptoms generated by these disorders can cause personal and

professional damage. In addition, it can contribute to low academic performance, as well as

high dropout rates. This, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of Minor Mental Disorders

among university students attending courses in the health area. Materials and Methods: This

is a cross-sectional and quantitative study carried out with 109 university students from health

courses (Physical Education, Nursing, Biomedicine and Pharmacy) from the Araguaia

University Campus of the Federal University of Mato Grosso in Barra do Garças, Mato Grosso,

Brazil. The sample was for convenience and data collection was carried out online, from August

to September 2021. The questionnaires were sent through an invitation, sent in the whatsapp

groups of the courses and UFMT/CUA in the invitation, the university students received a link

to access the research instruments, containing the Free and Informed Consent Term on the first

page, which after reading and agreeig to participate in the study, access to the pages referringg

to the data collection questionnaires was given, being a semi-structured questionnaire that

evaluated the sociodemographic and academic aspects of university students and the Self

Report Questionnaire 20 (SRQ-20) used to screen for non-psychotic disorders (28 points

indicated the presence of MMD). Data were entered in Microsoft Excel 2013 and analyzed

descriptively in SPSS Statistics version 24, presented in graphs and tables. This study received

ethical approval n 4.526,452 from UFMTCUA. Results: From a population of 109 university

students, 58.0% had Minor Mental Disorders. Among university students with an indication of

Minor Mental Disorders, there was a greater emphasis on those between 18 and 23 years old

(73.0%), female (81.0%) who deelared themselves as heterosexual (82.5%), non-white

(54.0%), single (79.4%), witlhout paid work (54.0%), with an income of less than 1 minimum

wage (60.3%) without children (93.6%), who did not live alone (85.7%) and with a religion

(79.4%). Regarding academic aspects, among those who presented Minor Mental Disorders,

those who attended Nursing (34.9%) and Biomedicine (31.8%), in the even semesters of the

courses (4th/20.6%, 6/23.8% and 8th/19%), who entered the university due to wide competition

(58.7%) actions and affirmative actions (41.3%), who were involved in extracurricular

activities (62.0%) and received financial support from the university (54.0%). Most university

students with Minor Mental Disorders considered the workload of course activities as

exhausting (76.2%) and were not satisfied with the course of choice (41.3%), had poor/regular

sleep quality (66.7%) and insomnia in the last month (66.7%), although they practiced leisure

activities (57.8%) and regular physical exercises (65.06). Final considerations: Minor mental

disorders were present among university students at UFMT/CUA, especially among young

women who study nursing and biomedicine with impaired sleep quality. The findings reveal

the need for the presence of mental health support services within the university, whether for

the development of activities to prevent psychiatrie disorders, especially Minor Mental

Disorders, or for activities that promote the mental health of the community academic.