IMPACT OF COVID19 ON PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SLEEP HEALTH OF MEDICAL AND PARAMEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluatey the distress, anxiety, depression, and sleep impact of COVID19 pandemic on medical and paramedical students via an online survey. This prospective cross-sectional study included 382 (115 male and 267 female) participants and was conducted at University of Health Sciences, in northern India, through an online survey using three psychological scales- Peritraumatic distress Inventory (PDI), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). The respondents included phase one and two students from various streams namely M.B.B.S (n=208; 53.47%), B.D.S (n=62; %), Nursing (n=91; 6%) and technical courses (n=21; 5.7%). One ninety-eight students (51.8%) suffered mild to severe stress, 161(42.1%) suffered anxiety, 169(44.2%) were depressed and 189(49.5%) students suffered some degree of insomnia. There was no difference in psychological and sleep morbidities in subgroup analysis of gender, residence and stream of medical education. CONCLUSION: The psychological morbidity is high in medical and paramedical students in terms of anxiety, depression, mental distress and sleep abnormalities in response to COVID-19 pandemic. The students should be counselled regarding mental health at regular interval and professional help should be taken when necessary.