Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic has caused a profound effect on the public mental health around the world. Fear and anxiety of this new disease and uncertainties about the future has led to stress to the society and especially to university students. The objective of this study is to assess depression, anxiety, and stress level experienced by dental students of the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) during the first period of Movement Control Order (MCO) by Malaysia government. A Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) was distributed online to all USIM’s dental students to assess their psychological impact and mental health status. The questionnaire included demographic characteristics of the respondents. A total of 175 students were involved in this study. Majority of the respondents are female (79.4%), first year dental students (25.7%) and were staying at home with their family (94.9%) in the midst of the outbreak. Overall, the depression, anxiety and stress (DASS-21) scores were normal. However, the proportion of student’s anxiety level was apparently higher than depression and stress. A significant finding showed that students who stayed at home were more anxious than those who stayed at hostel (p=0.035). Pandemic COVID-19 lockdown had impacted the psychological state of the USIM’s dental students mainly on their anxiety level. Mental health among the students should be carefully monitored by the university particularly at the faculty level to prevent further mental breakdown.
Highlights
COVID-19 is a highly contagious virus that spreads from person to person via respiratory droplets or aerosols containing the virus
Most of the respondents were in the normal range level of depression, anxiety and stress; 76%, 73.1% and 91.4% respectively
Our study showed positive findings whereby most of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) dental students were found to be normal with respect to depression, anxiety and stress (76%, 73.1% and 91.4% respectively)
Summary
COVID-19 is a highly contagious virus that spreads from person to person via respiratory droplets or aerosols containing the virus. It first emerged in Wuhan, Hubai province, China in December 2019 and was declared as a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020. On 15th March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it as a global pandemic as the spread crossed international borders, affecting a large number of population around the world (World Health Organization, 2020). The Malaysian government imposed the first Movement Control Order (MCO) to begin on 18th March 2019 to halt the infection spread (Tang, 2020). The impact of coronavirus spread had created uncertainty to higher education sectors. The pandemic has interrupted almost one billion students in 130 countries around the globe (UNESCO, 2020)
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