Depression in military medicine cadets: a cross-sectional study

Dimitrios Nasioudis; Leonidas Palaiodimos; Matthaios Dagiasis; Angeliki Katsarou; Evangelos Ntouros

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Depression in military medicine cadets: a cross-sectional study

RESEARCH | Updated：2026-03-12

- Depression in military medicine cadets: a cross-sectional study
- Military Medical Research Vol. 2, Issue 4, Pages: 207-212(2015)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Department of Gynaecology, 401 Army General Hospital, Athens, Greece
  2.Department of Medicine, Jacobi Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA
  3.Naval Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece
  4.251 Hellenic Air Force Hospital, Athens, Greece
  5.Hellenic Military School of Combat Support Officers (SSAS), Thessaloniki, Greece
- Author bio：
  
  *: dnasioudis@sni.gr
- Funds：
- DOI：
  CLC：
- Published：2015-12
- Accepted：
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Dimitrios Nasioudis, Leonidas Palaiodimos, Matthaios Dagiasis, et al. Depression in military medicine cadets: a cross-sectional study[J]. Military Medical Research, 2015, 2(4): 207-212.
DOI：

Dimitrios Nasioudis, Leonidas Palaiodimos, Matthaios Dagiasis, et al. Depression in military medicine cadets: a cross-sectional study[J]. Military Medical Research, 2015, 2(4): 207-212. DOI：

摘要

Abstract

Background:

Military medicine cadets undergo strenuous military training alongside demanding medical studies. This stressful and complex educational environment can lead to the emergence of depressive symptoms. We investigated the prevalence of depressive symptoms in a cohort of military medicine cadets.

Methods:

We conducted a descriptive questionnaire-based cross-sectional study among Greek military medicine cadets in the undergraduate program of the Hellenic Military School of Combat Support Officers. The Greek translation of the Zung self-rating depression scale questionnaire was used to screen for the presence of depressive symptoms. In addition

demographic

academic and dietary information was collected. The Shapiro-Wilk test of normality

Pearson correlation test

Chi-square test

t-test and Mann Whitney U test were employed for statistical analysis.

Results:

We enrolled 55 female and 91 male military medicine cadets with a mean age of 19.84 years (SD=0.99). The mean Zung crude score was 43.32 (SD=4.55): 42.8 (SD=4.43) for female cadets and 43.64 (SD=4.6) for male cadets. Cadets were further subdivided into low and high risk groups for the presence of depressive symptoms. We identified 57(39%) cadets with a total Zung crude score of 45 or above: 21 females and 36 males. Statistical analysis did not reveal any significant differences between the two groups based on gender

year of training

academic performance

alcohol consumption

smoking status

vitamin supplementation

dietary habits or BMI.

Conclusion:

We report a high prevalence of depressive symptoms in a cohort of military medicine cadets that underscores the need for effective screening and appropriate and timely interventions. We did not identify any related risk factors. Military medicine cadets are exposed to a challenging military and medical training environment

and thus represent a group at risk for development of depression.

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references

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