The Outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic and the Well-Being of Polish Students: The Risk Factors of the Emotional Distress during COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has a significant impact on both physical and mental health. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to (1) evaluate depression, anxiety, and stress levels among students from Polish universities during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) assess the risk factors of the higher intensity of emotional distress. We conducted an online survey using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) to assess well-being. The study included 2172 respondents (73% female, 27% male) with a mean age of 22.1 ± 2.2. Moderate to extremely severe scores of depression, anxiety, and stress were reported by 43.4%, 27.3%, and 41.0% of the respondents, respectively. Higher scores of DASS-21 were related to female sex (odds ratio (OR) = 3.01), studying sciences (OR = 2.04), co-residence with the roommates (OR = 1.25), suffering from a mental disorder (OR = 5.88), loneliness (OR = 293.30), the usage of psychiatric support before pandemic (OR = 8.06), poor economic situation (OR = 13.49), and the lower scores were found for being currently employed (OR = 0.4). This study highlights an urgent need for (1) crisis-oriented psychological and psychiatric support for students during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) preparing appropriate psychological interventions to improve the mental health of students for a possible similar situation in the future.

Relationships between Psychopathology, Psychological Process Variables, and Sociodemographic Variables and Comparison of Quarantined and Non-Quarantined Groups of Malaysian University Students in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…It captures the psychological zeitgeist of a watershed movement in history and can be instructive in the event subsequent pandemics occur. This study is also instructive in that it adds to the evidence that we already have about undergraduate students in lockdown, namely that they suffered increasing severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms [48], manifested in poorer sleep quality, poorer academic performance and increased suicidal thoughts in the university populations [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58].…”

A Comparison of Depression and Anxiety among University Students in Nine Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…There are several additional risk factors for mental health deterioration during the ongoing pandemic, such as female gender and lower income [12,31,32,[38][39][40][41], place of residence [42,43], financial and learning-related concerns [44,45] or physical inactivity [39]. Concerns regarding loved ones, own health, or academic performance were pronounced during the pandemic [45] and contributed to an increase in anxiety and depression levels [44].…”

The validation of the Arabic version of the Coronavirus‐2019 Phobia Scale (C19P‐SA) and individual differences in coronaphobia experiences among an Arabic population

“…As of May 2021, 426,384 people had been infected, 7072 people had in Saudi Arabia; 722,754 infected, 9203 died in Jordan; 240,927 infected, 14,091 in Egypt; and 514,670 infected, 9091 in Morocco (Wordometer, 2021 ) among some of the Arabic‐speaking nations. As these numbers indicate, serious problems exist in this part of the world, even though preventive measures are put into effect to control the spread of the virus, including but not limited to, wearing muzzle face, self‐isolation equipped with excess food, contact tracing, social restrictions, traveling restrictions, and lockdowns (Abd ElHafeez et al, 2021 ; Alyami et al, 2020 ; Juchnowicz et al, 2021 ; WHO, 2020 ).…”