A study on the changes in life habits, mental health, and sleep quality of college students due to COVID-19

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In early 2020, the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated changes in social behavior to prevent its spread, including holding online classes, implementing social distancing, and allowing employees to telecommute. However, these changes have had a negative impact on people’s sleep patterns and mental health, particularly for college students. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the relationship between mental health and sleep quality according to the changes in lifestyle of college students in the periods before and after COVID-19. METHODS: The study subjects were 164 college students from Korea who had both face-to-face and non-face-to-face college experiences before and after COVID-19. The experiment was conducted using a Google survey, and the participants were recruited from the college community. The general features and lifestyle habits for the individuals were assessed using the AUDIT-K, Delphi method, KGHQ (General Mental Health Scale), and PSQI-K (Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index). RESULTS: The KGHQ and PSQI scores increased with the spread of COVID-19, which means that the mental health and sleep quality of college students deteriorated. 11 categories of variables were further investigated to evaluate changes in lifestyle, and the results indicate significant changes in the number of private meetings per week, monthly drinking, outdoor activity time, electronic device usage time, weekly food delivery, weekly late-night snacks, daily snacks, and daily coffee intake and no significant changes in exercise, smoking, and fast food intake. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 caused many changes in the lifestyle of college students, which adversely affected mental health and sleep.

Validation of the Insomnia Severity Index among University Students in Korea

“…These results suggest that students with moderate to severe insomnia are more likely to report high levels of depression. This study thus confirms other studies' findings of a strong correlation between the ISI and depressive symptoms [3,10,11,14,34,39,41,54]. High factor loadings and acceptable AVE and CR values also verified the convergent validity of the ISI.…”

“…Compared with the overall population, university students have perhaps been significantly burdened by COVID-19 regarding their sleep quality and mental health as they have engaged in the most significant variation of activities before and after the pandemic [12,14,15]. A recent study in Korea revealed that sleep quality among university students has severely deteriorated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic [14]. Generally, the transition from high school to college is a critical risk period commonly associated with the initiation and escalation of substance use [16,17].…”

An investigative study of anxiety, depression and sleep quality in college students after the COVID-19 pandemic - the moderating effect of physical activity

“…Petrie et al (2023) showed that patients with sleep problems have a state of daily anxiety and depression, which can lead to prolonged sleep onset, reduced sleep duration and reduced sleep efficiency (McLeish et al, 2023). In turn sleep deprivation can cause physical and mental anxiety arousal to intensify the situation (Lee et al, 2022), and the vicious cycle repeats itself week after week, which is consistent with our finding that anxiety and depression can predict sleep quality. Therefore, schools can reduce the degree of anxiety and depression through psychological counselling for college students, thus improving sleep quality.…”

Use of online food retail platforms throughout the COVID‐19 pandemic and associated diet‐related chronic disease risk factors: A systematic review of emerging evidence

“…More studies saw decreased use of meal delivery apps 34,38,46,48,57 compared to an increase in use 38,49,55 . From the second half of 2021 to the last quarter of 2022, all study outcomes showed an increase in use of online groceries and meal delivery apps 41,60,72,76,79,82,83 …”