Depression and anxiety among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: A web-based cross-sectional survey

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of depression and anxiety among Bangladeshi university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also aimed at identifying the determinants of depression and anxiety. A total of 476 university students living in Bangladesh participated in this cross-sectional web-based survey. A standardized e-questionnaire was generated using the Google Form, and the link was shared through social media—Facebook. The information was analyzed in three consecutive levels, such as univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis. Students were experiencing heightened depression and anxiety. Around 15% of the students reportedly had moderately severe depression, whereas 18.1% were severely suffering from anxiety. The binary logistic regression suggests that older students have greater depression (OR = 2.886, 95% CI = 0.961–8.669). It is also evident that students who provided private tuition in the pre-pandemic period had depression (OR = 1.199, 95% CI = 0.736–1.952). It is expected that both the government and universities could work together to fix the academic delays and financial problems to reduce depression and anxiety among university students.

Prevalence of anxiety and depression in South Asia during COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…CI: 27.6-37) 54 , whereas the highest prevalence was found after excluding a study by Chew and colleagues (35.9%, 95% CI: 31-41.1) 77 . Furthermore, a high publication bias was observed in the visual assessment of the funnel plot (Figure 7), which was validated by Egger's test results, indicating a significant publication bias (p = .05).…”

“…It is necessary to investigate the social determinants of mental health in South Asia and their trajectories during and after this pandemic. An altered psychosocial state may impact intrapersonal, interpersonal, and community-based psychological processes and outcomes in the population level 54,72 . Moreover, systematic oppression and repression in socioeconomically South Asian countries have a comparative lack of empirical research on mental health problems despite having a large proportion of the global population 37,38,97 .…”

“…Lastly, COVID-19 has deeply impacted every aspects of human lives and widened health disparities across contexts, which necessitates a holistic approach to address the psychosocial and environmental determinants of mental disorders 9,46,54 . Most of the South Asian countries have a high burden of social diseases such as poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, gender inequity, interpersonal violence, political unrest, systematic exclusion of minorities from socioeconomic opportunities, and many other issues that may adversely affect mental health and wellbeing across population groups 27,37,38,85 .…”

COVID-19 Psychological Implications: The Role of Shame and Guilt

“…Narrative lived experiences of patients with COVID-19 evidenced shameful intrusive thoughts and the fear of being stigmatized by friends, colleagues, and neighbors (Sahoo et al, 2020). These negative feelings can be amplified by social media exposure that is characterized by an abundance of misinformation and fake news circulating about COVID-19 (Islam et al, 2020). This unpleasant emotion can be amplified by social disparities as well as by the spread of stigma associated with COVID-19, affecting not only those newly diagnosed with the disease but also health care providers.…”

Novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) pandemic: Common challenges and response from higher education providers

“…The above statistics depict the stress level associated with students at the very early stages of this pandemic and according to the most recent web-based cross-sectional survey conducted in August in Bangladesh also revealed serious impacts on students. Among university students, 82.2 % were experiencing mild to severe depression symptoms and 87.7 % of students were found to have mild to severe anxiety symptoms (Islam et al, 2020). As the COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be devastating and challenging throughout the world, both governments and universities are required to work together to reduce depression and anxiety among students, at least by providing proper mentoring.…”