Abstract
Background: Knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of college students remains limited. Our aim is to investigate the prevalence of anxiety and explore the potential risk and protective factors of anxiety. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was adopted and a total of 24,678 college students were included from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, during February, 2020. Anxiety was assessed by using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder tool (GAD-7). Multiple logistic regression models were established for exploring potential factors of anxiety. Results: The overall prevalence of anxiety was 7.3%. After adjusting for potential confounders, sex, place of residence, worried level, fear level, cognitive levels, and behavior status were found to be associated with anxiety (p < 0.05). Students with positive preventive behaviors showed a protective effect against the anxiety symptoms compared to those with negative preventive behaviors. In contrast to the high-cognition category, participants at a low cognitive level were 14.9% more likely to present anxiety symptoms. Conclusion: This large-scale study assessed the prevalence of anxiety and its potential influencing factors among college students. It suggests that the government could strengthen health education related to COVID-19 and supervise the performance of preventive behaviors to handle anxiety.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) widely and rapidly spread across national borders and continents, escalating into a global health crisis [1,2]
As shown by the relationship between the demographic variables of students and anxiety conditions in Table 1, participants with different anxiety conditions varied in sex, place of residence, cognitive level, worried level, fear level, and behavior status
The results indicated that living in county-level city areas, in comparison with rural areas, increased the likelihood of anxiety, just like living in a city 40.4% increased the likelihood of anxiety
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) widely and rapidly spread across national borders and continents, escalating into a global health crisis [1,2]. The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed deep concerns about the severity of the spread of the outbreak, declared it a Public Health Emergency of International. Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020, and assessed the new coronary pneumonia as a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. The negative impact on the economy, social activity, and public health, as well as the uncertain treatment and prognosis of the disease, serious shortages of medicine resources, social isolation, and media information overload, all led to an atmosphere of anxiety around the world [3,4]. It can be inferred that the current pandemic situation may cause major impacts on college students.
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