Mental Health Crisis and Stress Coping among Healthcare College Students Momentarily Displaced from Their Campus Community Because of COVID-19 Restrictions in Japan.

Kayoko Takahashi,Yuki Mashizume,Masatoshi Tahara

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147245

Abstract

College students are one of the most affected groups by self-quarantine due to COVID-19, as they may live in loneliness and anxiety, increasing their risk of mental health crisis. This study aimed to identify risk factors for poor mental health and stress coping strategies among healthcare college students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. A cross-sectional survey was conducted over 7 consecutive days starting on 28 April 2020 using a web-based questionnaire. The survey assessed socioeconomic characteristics and the General Health Questionnaire-12 score, self-reported health status, anxiety, and satisfaction with daily life, work, leisure, and new activities. Approximately 70% of 223 respondents had poor mental health. Less communication with friends was the main risk factor for mental health problems. Good health status and satisfaction with leisure and new activities were associated with reduced risk of mental health problems. Students with poor mental health tended to seek social support as a stress coping strategy. This study showed that the mental health of students declined during self-quarantine, and loneliness could be the major reason. There is a need for a new form of communication and learning that deals with the isolation and loneliness of students, especially for students living alone.

Highlights

The impact of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which began in China and spread around the world starting in December 2019 [1], has profoundly altered the economic activities and daily lives of people everywhere [2]
To capture satisfaction with daily life, we developed an original 10point Likert scale based on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure [19], which included satisfaction with leisure, satisfaction with job, satisfaction with daily-life activities, and satisfaction with new activities started since COVID-19 restrictions began [20,21]
Of 828 eligible students, a total of 226 (27.3%) healthcare college students responded to the survey for 7 days from 24 April 2020 to 4 May 2020

Summary

Introduction

The impact of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which began in China and spread around the world starting in December 2019 [1], has profoundly altered the economic activities and daily lives of people everywhere [2]. COVID-19 has resulted in lost learning opportunities and economic stress for college students [4,5]. About 30% of college students were reported to have mental health problems such as depression and anxiety due to the spread of COVID-19 [6,7]. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic [8]. On 7 April 2020, the Japanese government issued an emergency declaration and designated 13 prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, as special caution areas [9]

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Conclusion