Abstract
High levels of stress are expected when crises affect people's lives. Therefore, this Web-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among university students from Pakistan to investigate the psychological impairment and coping strategies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Google Forms were used to disseminate the online questionnaire to assess anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), and coping strategies (Brief-COPE). A total of 1134 responses (age, 21.7 ± 3.5 y) were included. The frequency of students having moderate-severe anxiety and depression (score ≥ 10) were ≈ 34% and 45%, respectively. The respondents' aged ≥ 31 y had significantly lower depression score than those ≤ 20 y (P = 0.047). Males had significantly less anxiety (6.62 ± 5.70 vs 7.84 ± 5.60; P = 0.001) and depression (8.73 ± 6.84 vs 9.71 ± 7.06; P = 0.031) scores. Those having family members, friends, or acquaintances infected with disease had significantly higher anxiety scores (8.89 ± 5.74 vs 7.09 ± 5.56; P < 0.001). Regarding coping strategies, the majority of respondents were found to have adopted religious/spiritual coping (6.45 ± 1.68) followed by acceptance (5.58 ± 1.65), self-distraction (4.97 ± 1.61), and active coping (4.81 ± 1.57). In conclusion, COVID-19 caused significant impairment on mental health of the students. The most frequent coping strategies adopted by students were religious/spiritual and acceptance coping. During epidemics, mental health of students should not be neglected.
Highlights
High levels of stress are expected when crises affect people’s lives
It was revealed that a majority (70.5%) of the respondents were female and native of Punjab province (93.4%), and 67.9% of the students were enrolled in the Doctor of Pharmacy program
The significantly higher proportion of students with anxiety and depression in our study can be attributable to the fact that 21.8% of our study subjects having somebody who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, which was less than 1% in the previous study.[5]
Summary
High levels of stress are expected when crises affect people’s lives This Web-based, crosssectional study was conducted among university students from Pakistan to investigate the psychological impairment and coping strategies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Fear, anxiety, and hysteria among people are observed that lead to stigma, irrational response to the disease, in the society Recent examples in this context include stigmatization of HIV/ AIDS, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H1N1, and Ebola. The continuous spread of the disease, conspiracy theories, myths, and blame games; sensational media reporting of COVID-19; frustration and boredom; implementation of social lock-down with classmates, friends, and teachers; lack of personal space at home; and family financial loss due to lock-down are some of the main risk factors significantly influencing the mental health of the university students. The present study was conducted to underscore the psychologic impact of CVOID-19 on Pakistani university students and their coping strategies
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