PREVALENCE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS OF MENTAL DISTRESS AND BARRIERS TO RECEIVE PROFESSIONAL MENTAL HEALTH CARE AMONG REGULAR UNDERGRATUATE STUDENTS AT WOLDIA UNIVERSITY, NORTH EAST ETHIOPIA.

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Mental distress is feeling of upset, stress, anxiety, depression, and any emotional and psychological symptoms which you may feel hindering normal healthy functioning, it is becoming a common health problem among university students globally. In low- and middleincome countries, there is limited data on the barriers to professional mental health care access to university students with mental distress. For people with mental health issues, just point care, whereas many do not access service at all. Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of mental distress and barriers to receive professional mental health care among regular undergraduate students at Woldia university, Ethiopia, 2021. Method: facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among a sample of 812 regular under graduate students at Woldia university from march 30 to April 30, 2021; study subjects was selected using stratified multistage sampling technique; Kessler psychological distress scale were used to assess mental distress; the data were entered by Epi data version 3.1 and data was analysed using STATA version 14 for windows, Bivariate and Multivariate logistic regression analysis were done to identify associated factors to mental distress; barriers to mental health care were assessed using barriers to access to care evaluation (BACE-III) 30 item tool; Percentage, frequency, mean, and standard deviation were employed to identify common barriers to mental health care service. Multiple linear regression analysis was done with the total mean scores of barriers to access to care evaluation (BACE-III) sub-scales to identify the associated factors. Variables with P-values of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant and strength of the association were presented by an adjusted odds ratio with 95% C.I for mental distress and barriers to receive professional mental health care. Results. The proportion of students with mental distress were found to be 44.6%. Female students (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 2.51; 95% CI (1.73, 3.65), current substance use (AOR=2.59; 95% CI 1.38, 4.88), poor social support (AOR=2.15; 95% CI 1.37, 3.38) and decreased grade point (CGPA) than anticipated (AOR=1.89; 95% CI 1.25, 2.86) were significantly associated with mental distress of students. The top five barriers to receive professional mental health service were: (a) Wanting to solve the problem on their own, (b) thinking the problem would get better by itself, (c) Having no one who could help them to get professional care, (d) dislike of talking about their feelings, emotions or thoughts’ and (e) thinking as they do not have a problem