Background: Medical students frequently have depressive symptoms. Thus, the psychological impact of COVID-19 on them should be high.
Aim: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of depression in medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Material and methods: MEDLINE via PubMed, Embase and Web of Science were searched for studies reporting the prevalence of depression in medical students, published from December 1, 2019 to December 27, 2020.
Results: Eleven studies were included, most of them from Asia. The estimated overall prevalence of depression in medical students was 31% (95% CI: 23%-40%), with lower prevalence rates reported in studies from Asia in general, and China in particular.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that the proportion of medical students with depression during the pandemic was high, and comparable with that reported in other university students.