Prevalence of depression in suburban college students of Kolkata, West Bengal and its relation with BMI and percentage of body fat

Depression can be expressed as a typical mental state with a feelings of unpleasantness. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the type of depression characterized by low mood and temperament. Presence of depression is a common phenomenon in college students though most of them unaware of that and do not discuss about depression. The present study was aimed to find out the prevalence of depression in college students in a suburban area.. Ninety-nine college going students, both male and female were studied in a suburban area near Kolkata for their depression level and  its relation with Body mass Index (BMI) and Body fat %. 40.4 % students both male and female were normal whereas 60.6 % were depressed at different levels. But male students were less depressive than women when compared in between.  46.15 % male and 34.04 % female were in normal level. 34.04 % female students were with mild depression whereas that of male students was 23.08 %. 14.89 % female and 13.46 % male students were at borderline but 10.64 % female were at moderate level in compare to 13.46 % moderate depression in male students. Severe depression level were observed in both male and females students but in less percent which were 2.13 % and 3.085% for female and male students. Extreme depression was observed in female students only (4.26 %).  Average 22.3 kg/m2   BMI was observed for the female students and that of male students was 21.7 kg/m2. Female students possessed an average fat % of 34.3, which was 21.7 for the male students in average. When depression score was correlated with BMI, a very poor negative correlation was observed (r= – 0.04, non-significant) which was reflected in a very poor negative relationship with body fat % (r= -0.10, non-significant). Thus, the study revealed that depression did not have linear co-relationship with BMI and fat %.