In this study, we aimed to disentangle the mediating effect of sleep disorder between mental health literacy (MHL) and depressive symptoms in Chinese medical students, especially focusing on the impact of gender and grade.
Pooled longitudinal data of 5,504 medical students was collected between November 2019 and June 2020 to assess the MHL, sleep disorder and mental health of medical students in Anhui province, China. Mediation analyses were tested by using bootstrapping procedures.
Sleep disorder were negatively correlated with adequate MHL, but positively correlated with depressive symptoms. The relationships between MHL and depressive symptoms were mediated by sleep disorder in total samples and the indirect effect accounted for 13.59% of the total effect. However, the ratio was 20.82% in female students, whereas no mediating effect was found in the male students. Moreover, the ratio was found higher in freshmen (15.11%) than that in sophomores (11.56%).
Improving the sleep disorder by enhancing MHL is an effective way to reduce depressive symptoms in Chinese medical students. Further investigations elaborately considered by using more gender-balanced population with higher grade and lower level of education.