For anxiety symptoms, significant gender interactions were observed for age group ( P < 0.001), parental relationship ( P < 0.001), and annual household income ( P < 0.001), while the interaction with smoking approached significance ( P = 0.056).
Furthermore, the distribution of severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms revealed a stratification among university students, with our findings showing a decreasing trend in prevalence from mild to severe symptoms[ 45 , 46 ].
Previous studies have shown a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms among undergraduates than in the general population, ranging from 2.1% to 88.8%, with a median prevalence of 34.8% and an increasing trend[ 13 , 14 ].