Mental health status of students attending tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

National health policies that take into cognizance the interventions against the menace of students' ill health in Nigeria are limited. This study investigated the health status of students in tertiary institutions in Bayelsa State. A descriptive study design was adopted to randomly select four tertiary institutions out of six. Two hundred students were randomly selected from the four schools; fifty from each school. Structured questionnaires containing symptoms-specific ill health were distributed to the selected students. One hundred and fifty-five questionnaires used for the analyses were retrieved. Thirty six specific health symptoms perceived by the students were classified following WHO standard. Out of 561 students-symptoms, 35.6% were mental health while 34.6% were infectious. More female (66.53%) than male (60.14%) showed mental health symptoms. The differences were not significant (P>0.05). Students who had lived in urban location had more mental than those that resided in rural location. The differences were significant (P<0.05). The symptoms decreases as age increased. 60.1% of the students developed these health challenges as they got admitted into schools while 39.9% of the students had the problem at home before admitted to the school. The symptoms of the student's mental health increased as parents' income improved. The implication of these results is a cause for prompt public health intervention