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Table 1 Demographic and other characteristics of the undergraduate sample (n = 4671)

From: Quantifying and predicting depression literacy of undergraduates: a cross sectional study in Sri Lanka

Variables

n

%

Demographic variables

Gender

  

Male

1447

31.0

Female

3220

68.9

Faculty

  

Medicine

620

13.3

Arts and Educationa

1198

25.6

Law

616

13.2

Management and Finance

1025

21.9

Science

687

14.7

School of Computing

524

11.2

Year of Study

  

1st year

1946

41.7

2nd year

1243

26.6

3rd year

838

17.9

4th year

530

11.3

5th year (Medicine)b

114

2.4

Age group (Mean = 22.17; SD = 1.46)

  

18–20 years

515

11.0

21–23 years

3355

71.8

24 and above

793

17.0

Ethnicity

  

Sinhala

4281

91.7

Tamil

193

4.1

Sri Lankan Moor

147

3.1

Other

46

1.0

Religion

  

Buddhist

4064

87.0

Hindu

161

3.4

Islam

152

3.3

Roman Catholic

215

4.6

Other

73

1.6

Residence when going to University

  

Home

1752

37.5

Hostel

1403

30.0

Rented place

1188

25.4

Home of friend or relative

272

5.8

Other

51

1.1

Other variables

Exposure to problem through family/friends

  

No

1773

38.0

Yes

1695

36.3

Don’t know

1054

22.6

Personal experience of problem

  

No

2525

54.1

Yes

1511

32.3

Don’t know

326

7.0

If problem personally experienced (responding as ‘Yes’ or ‘Don’t know), if help sought (n = 1767)

  

Help not sought

683

38.7

Tried first but got help later

704

39.8

Help sought

380

21.5

Screening positive for Major Depression (n = 4304)

  

No

3903

90.7

Yes

401

9.3

  1. aThose in the Faculty of Education were 5.6 % of this group
  2. bOnly those from the Faculty of Medicine had a 5th year of study
  3. Instances that the sum of participants do not equal the total number of respondents are due to missing data