Trends of Social Anxiety in University Students of Pakistan Post-COVID-19 Lockdown: A Healthcare Analytics Perspective

Abstract

This paper disseminates our research findings that we conducted on university students in the years 2021, 2022, and 2023, with the year 2021 taken as the base year. Our research mined and excavated a concealed prevalence of social anxiety as an important and crucial facet of study anxiety in the university students of Pakistan. Using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), we found a significant increase in the social anxiety level among university students in the past three years after the COVID-19 lockdown. Our data showed that the ‘very severe anxiety’ level soared up to 52.94% in the year 2023 from just 5.98% in the year 2021, showing a net increase of 47.06%. Statistical analyses demonstrate noteworthy differences in the overall social anxiety levels among the students, reaching significance at the 5% level and a discernable upward trend in the social anxiety levels as study anxiety. We also employed predictive analytics, including binary classifiers and generalized linear models with a 95% confidence interval, to identify individuals at risk. This study highlights a dynamic shift with escalating social anxiety levels among the university students and thus emphasizing its awareness, which is significantly important for the timely intervention, potentially preventing symptom escalation and improving outcomes.