2.2.5. Depression

A patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to measure symptoms of depression among university students. PHQ-9 consisted of nine items, corresponding to the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria [58,59]. Participants answered questions about how often over the past two weeks they had been bothered by nine depression symptoms, using a Likert-like response scale ranging from 0 = Not at all, to 3 = Nearly every day. The PHQ-9 scores may be interpreted as normal between 0–4, mild major depressive disorder between 5–9, moderate between 10–14, moderately severe between 15–19, and severe between 20–27 [58]. At a score of 10 or above, it is recommended to screen for a major depressive disorder [58,60,61]. In this study, the Cronbach's α for the PHQ-9 was 0.85.
