Association Of Kolb’s Learning Styles With Depressive Symptoms Among Students Of Two Colleges Of Medicine In Baghdad: 2024

Abstract

Background: Majority of mental problems started in young people, in addition to the superimposed stress of education during college period. Personal preferences of student like learning style can make them more liable to negative stress sequelae as it affects coping mechanism to stress. So focusing should be directed towards studying relationships among learning styles, stress, and mental health. Objective was to find prevalence of Kolb learning styles, depressive symptoms, and their associations, among students of Baghdad, and Al-Kindy medical colleges.

Method: A cross section study was conducted on 371 medical students in 1^st and 4^th grades, in medical colleges of Baghdad and Al-Kindy. Data collection period was from 15/1/2024 to 25/2/2024. Valid and reliable dependent tools were used, Kolb learning style inventory, and patient health questionnaire-9 for depression symptoms. Sample stratification was applied according to: college, grade, and gender strata to get rid of confounder in design phase. Chi square used for analysis. A further post-hoc, standardized residual was applied in analysis phase to test the strength of association. To eliminate confounders in analysis phase, a Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel Method was used.

Result: Mild and moderate depression symptoms registered 63%, while moderate-severe degree 19%. Most prevalent learning style was assimilating 34.5%.  Least reported learning style, accommodators 15.9%, recorded significant association with severe degree of depressive symptoms, p value 0.033. Younger age group, and first grade had a significance with severe degree of depression symptoms, p value 0.023, and 0.015 in order. Female group significance was with moderate-severe degree of depression symptoms, p value 0.029.

Conclusion: Over half of students at both colleges experienced mild and moderate degrees of depression symptoms. First rank learning style was the assimilation. Accommodators, younger age, and first grade recorded significance association with severe degree of depression symptoms, while being female reported this association with moderate- severe degree.