Does Physical Activity Matter for the Mental Health of University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Abstract

Research indicates that university and college students are at higher risk of experiencing mental health problems than other populations. This study aims to examine the relationship between Physical Activity (PA) and the mental health of Ukrainian university students during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown. The conventional sample consisted of 1512 students from 11 Ukrainian universities, with a mean age of 20 years (M = 20.06, SD = 3.05) and 69% of whom were female. The cross-sectional online survey was disseminated through the most popular social media channels in Ukraine (i.e., Facebook, Viber, Telegram) and included the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale to measure anxiety and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to assess depression. Data were collected from 14 May to 4 June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Ukraine. Among university students, 43% were engaged in PA ≥ 150 min weekly, 24% met the criteria of GAD, and 32% met the criteria of depression. More students were involved in PA before the COVID-19 outbreak than during the national lockdown. Students with anxiety and depression were almost two times less likely to engage in PA than their counterparts without mental health disorders. The inactive group had higher scores of anxiety and depression than the physically active group. The relationship of PA with anxiety and depression was statistically significant but weak during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Depressive Symptoms in Swiss University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Correlates

“…In the present study, female gender was associated with a higher risk of reporting depressive symptoms, which is in line with a large body of previous findings [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Moreover, students with a migration background, i.e., double citizens and foreign nationals, and students from families with lower socioeconomic status were more likely to have depressive symptoms.…”

“…The crude prevalence in our Swiss student population was 27.2% (95% CI: 25.6–28.9) and 22.5% (95% CI: 20.6–24.4) adjusted for all covariates, respectively. Based on PHQ-9, a similar high prevalence of depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic was found in Chinese (23.3%; 95% CI: 21.5–25.1) [ 24 ] and Ukrainian students (31.7%; 4.1% in the severe category) [ 25 ], while other studies reported an even higher prevalence of depressive symptoms in French (43.0%; 7.0% in the severe category) [ 26 ] and Bangladeshi (53.7; 10.7% in the severe category) university students [ 27 ]. Differences between studies may be due to differences in the sample gender composition—i.e., women tend to have a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms—cultural differences, differences in education systems, or the different impact of the pandemic on different countries and regions [ 34 ].…”

“…PHQ-9 cut-off scores between 8 and 11 were found to have acceptable diagnostic properties for detecting major depressive disorder [ 41 ]. In the present study, we used the established cut-off of 10 or above [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 42 ] to classify participants as having depressive symptoms (0 = no, 1 = yes), being the primary outcome of the present study.…”

“…The annual economic burden of depression in Switzerland has been estimated to be about 8 billion Swiss francs [ 23 ]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a consistently high prevalence of depressive symptoms was found in Chinese (23.3%) [ 24 ] and Ukrainian students (31.7%) [ 25 ], while other studies reported an even higher prevalence of depressive symptoms in French (43.0%) [ 26 ] and Bangladeshi (53.7%) [ 27 ] university students. However, very few studies so far have assessed change in depressive symptoms among students over time.…”

Cross-sectional survey of depressive symptoms and suicide-related ideation at a Japanese national university during the COVID-19 stay-home order

“…The prevalence of depression among college and university students under the COVID-19 pandemic varies depending on the diagnostic tools utilized, population in question, duration of quarantine/isolation, and how severely the areas in question have been affected [ 16 ]. However, in previous studies of college and university students using the PHQ-9, the following were the depression prevalence (PHQ-9 ≥10) rates reported: 46.5% in the UK [ 17 ], 9.0% in China [ 18 ], 18.5% in Slovakia [ 19 ], and 31.7% in Ukraine [ 20 ]. Although a direct comparison between countries is difficult, within Japan, a study [ 14 ] investigating the pre-pandemic situation among 2194 students at one national university reported a 28.7% prevalence of depression (95% CI, 27–31) based on PHQ-9 scores ≥5.…”