How are Brazilian university students coping with the COVID-19 pandemic? Results of an online survey on psychosocial well-being, perceived burdens, and attitudes toward social distancing and vaccination

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption to education systems worldwide, increasing pre-existing concerns regarding university students’ mental health. Brazil was among the countries most affected by COVID-19 cases and deaths and was considered a pandemic epicenter. This study aimed to investigate Brazilian university students’ mental health status and perceived burdens during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods From November 2021 to March 2022, a cross-sectional and anonymous online survey was conducted among students of a Brazilian federal university. Mental health status (depressive symptoms, alcohol and drug consumption) and social and emotional aspects in the pandemic context (social support, perceived stress, loneliness, resilience, and self-efficacy) were assessed with standardized measures. Students’ attitudes toward the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination and perceived burdens of the pandemic were also investigated. Results A total of N = 2,437 students completed the online survey. The PHQ-9 mean sum score was 12.85 (SD = 7.40), while n = 1,488 (61.10%) participants reported a sum score of 10 or more, indicating clinically relevant depressive symptoms. Further, n = 808 (33.1%) of the total sample reported suicidal thoughts. Levels of depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and loneliness were higher among undergraduate/bachelor students than doctoral students. Almost all participants (97.3%) reported being fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Multiple regression analyses showed that being single, having an income decreased during the pandemic, having a previous mental illness, having a chronic somatic condition, not finding positive aspects in the pandemic, lower self-efficacy, lower social support, lower resilience, and higher experienced loneliness were significantly associated with higher levels of depression. Conclusions The study showed high levels of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among Federal University of Parana students. Therefore, health care providers and universities need to recognize and address mental health issues; psychosocial policies must be enhanced to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on students’ mental health and wellbeing.

An investigation of academic resilience, resilience, and empathy in pharmacy students: Implications for pharmacy education

“…The mean overall resilience score for the pharmacy students, as measured by the BRS, was 3.2 ± 0.58, falling within the normal range according to the BRS manual. When compared to other studies using the same scale, the resilience scores from this sample were higher than those of the undergraduate students in Spain and Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic (Prado et al, 2023;Ramos-Martín et al, 2023). These scores also exceeded the average resilience scores observed among university students in Oman, which included pharmacy and medicine students (Al-Mahrouqi et al, 2023).…”

Acceptability and Feasibility of Online Support Groups for Mental Health Promotion in Brazilian Graduate Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Observational Study

“…Second, it supports this program's potential benefits in promoting students' mental health and well-being, which was the secondary outcome of this study. It points to the demand for support before students' burdens related to the university and mental health issues are aggravated [2,5,10,12,72,[89][90][91]. For example, a participant wrote the following: I thought the experience was very important.…”

“…[Female; aged 40 y; doctoral student in the third year of the course] In addition to being feasible and highly acceptable by the participants, all the quality-of-life domains improved in the posttreatment (T2) assessment. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened mental health indicators, quality of life, and level of physical activity among Brazilian university students [16,19,22,28,91,92] and worldwide [17,18,[23][24][25][26][27]93]. Considering that and the fact that the topics addressed in the sessions were related to the domains measured by the WHOQOL-BREF, the overall improvement reported by participants is a remarkable outcome related to well-being and coping strategies to reduce mental distress [10].…”

Condições emocionais e intervenções grupais para a promoção de saúde mental entre estudantes da Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso

“…Com os impactos em diversos âmbitos da vida em decorrência da pandemia de COVID-19, a saúde mental emergiu como uma área de grande preocupação. Os estudos têm evidenciado que os universitários enfrentaram desafios singulares, haja vista que a transição para o ensino remoto emergencial, o isolamento social e as incertezas relacionadas à crise de saúde global podem ter influenciado a saúde mental e a qualidade de vida de modo negativo, conforme evidenciado por estudos nacionais (Correia-Zanini et al, 2023;Patias et al, 2021;Prado et al, 2023) e internacionais (Billah et al, 2023;Flores et al, 2022;Jovanović & Višnjić, 2023).…”

“…A literatura tem ressaltado a importância do suporte social na promoção da saúde mental e da satisfação de vida. Estudos anteriores demonstraram que o suporte social está associado a uma melhor saúde mental, maior bem-estar subjetivo e menor incidência de transtornos psicológicos (Kohls et al, 2021;Prado et al, 2023). Além disso, indivíduos com uma rede de apoio social mais forte geralmente relatam uma melhor adaptação a eventos estressantes, apresentam maior motivação e melhor desempenho acadêmico (Descals-Tomás et al, 2021;Sveinsdóttir et al, 2021).…”