International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics | March 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 3 Page 692 International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics Patel D et al. Int J Contemp Pediatr. 2020 Mar;7(3):692-695 http://www.ijpediatrics.com pISSN 2349-3283 | eISSN 2349-3291 Original Research Article Prevalence and risk factors for anxiety and depression among school going adolescent of Rajkot, Gujarat, India Dipal Patel, Dhara Patel* INTRODUCTION Adolescent (10-19 years) accounts for 21.4% of the India’s population. 1 According to the WHO, adolescence is the period of life that extends from 10 to 19 years. The Indian Academy of Pediatrics defines adolescence as the period of life between 10 and 18 years. 2 Many diseases in adulthood have their roots in adolescence. Adolescence is a period of turmoil, leading to several mental health challenges including anxiety and/or depression. Anxiety is one of the most common psychological problems in school going adolescents worldwide. 3 Depressive disorders affects 10-15% of adolescents. Anxiety and depression are associated with substantial negative effects on adolescent’s emotional, social and academic success. 4 This leads to poor coping skill, low self-esteem, difficulty forming friendships and perceptions of social rejection. Very few studies have addressed depression and anxiety among school going adolescents in India. It should be ABSTRACT Background: Adolescence is a period of turmoil, leading to several mental health challenges including anxiety and/or depression. Anxiety and depressive disorders affects 10-15% of adolescents. Anxiety and depression are associated with substantial negative effects on adolescent’s social, emotional and academic success. This leads to poor social and coping skills, low self-esteem, perceptions of social rejection, and difficulty forming friendships. This study was carried out with an objective to study prevalence and risk factors for anxiety and depression among adolescents. Methods: A cross sectional study conducted from April 2014 to December 2015 among 1026 school going adolescents from 4 schools of Rajkot, Gujarat, India. Anxiety and depression were measured using Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) respectively. Chi-square test was applied as test of significance. Results: Majority of the students (58.1%) was belonged to early adolescent age group. Two third were males. Maximum adolescents (42.5%) were coming from class III. Prevalence of moderate-severe anxiety and depression was 9.9% and 18.5%. Anxiety was not significantly associated with age, gender and socio economic class. Prevalence of depression was significantly higher in boys (20.5%) as compared to girls (14.5%, p=0.02). Moderate to severe depression was gradually increased with increasing in age. Adolescent from upper socio economic class (I, II, III- 19.1%) were severely depressed than adolescent from lower socio economic class (IV, V- 4.1%). Conclusions: Anxiety and depression was significantly present in adolescent age group. Depression was commonly observed in boys and gradually increased with increasing in age. There is need of strengthening school health services with screening and cost effective interventions to minimize the risk of drug abuse, suicide and violence. Keywords: Adolescent, Anxiety, Beck anxiety inventory, Depression, Socio economic class Department of Paediatrics, Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society Medical College, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India Received: 25 December 2019 Revised: 04 January 2020 Accepted: 28 January 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Dhara Patel, E-mail: prthptl231@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20200701