Confinement, Comfort and Health: Analysis of the Real Influence of Lockdown on University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the population worldwide into lockdown. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of this measure on the health and comfort of university students and the role that the characteristics of the home may have played. It is essential to differentiate between the terms comfort and health both from the medical and architectural perspectives, as there are differences between the two concepts that are, nonetheless, shared by both disciplines. An online survey was fulfilled by 188 medicine and architecture undergraduate students at the University of Seville, Spain. In terms of health, 89% suffered neuropsychiatric disorders (56% anxiety and 49% depression), 38% gained weight and 59% reported alcohol consumption. In relation to comfort, the majority rated their home positively, comfortable in terms of room temperature and noise at night, and they had a good relationship with cohabitants. However, those who did not have a balcony or terrace would have liked to have open spaces They would have also liked to increase the size of their bedroom, where they spent most of their time and where they studied. A built-up environment gave them a sense of being imprisoned, while those who enjoyed open spaces found a sense of peace. The absence of open spaces in the house, the environment and the impossibility of making the most frequently used spaces more flexible may have had negative impacts on the health and comfort of university students during confinement.

Effect of Housing Quality on the Mental Health of University Students during the COVID-19 Lockdown

“…These findings are consistent with the new challenges that COVID-19 lockdown measures brought to attention on housing environments, stressing the need for healthy, comfortable, and sustainable living places [ 46 , 48 ]. The data also emphasized the possible need for novel and more technological tools for flexible interior design modifications [ 49 ], common recreational open spaces, and vegetation views [ 20 , 50 , 51 ], as well as workspace adaptations [ 24 , 41 ]. Our findings also support a positive association between self-reported mental health symptomatology and indoor quality features, such as the presence of plant plots, or greater amounts of sunlight, as also reported in previous European studies [ 37 , 52 , 53 ].…”

“…For depressive-related symptomatology, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale was adopted [19], assessing the severity of depressive symptoms during the previous two weeks. Among a range score from 0 to 27, the severity could be assessed as normal (0-4), ( 2) mild (5-9), ( 3) moderate (10)(11)(12)(13)(14), (4) moderate/severe (15)(16)(17)(18)(19), and severe (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27).…”

“…COVID-19 significantly contributed to changed working habits too, with an increased adoption of working solutions that transformed home environments into work environments. In the scientific literature, several studies have highlighted the impact of COVID-19 and the lockdowns on the mental health and depression of students, one of the most fragile demographics of the population [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Nevertheless, the role of the housing environment where most of them spent their daily hours was rarely considered [ 23 ].…”

The Need for Smart Architecture Caused by the Impact of COVID-19 upon Architecture and City: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Some of the literature found for healthcare was based on frameworks and review. The application of the same technologies, such as IoT devices and artificial intelligence, was researched for specific countries, including South America, India, Malaysia, Iraq, Italy, and China [47,[49][50][51][52][53]55,60,61,66,137]. Some of the IoT devices that have been studied include thermal detection devices, surveillance networks, healthcare delivery services, and tracking and tracing.…”

The Importance of Domestic Space in the Times of COVID-19

“…It is clear that domestic architecture is not prepared to satisfy a person or a family with multiple activities, changing constantly through the transfer of actions, feelings, and thoughts. Keeping families cooped up during lockdown has almost driven everyone crazy, because design has never addressed the multiplicity of emotions [26][27][28][29]. While this is a problem of architecture in general, the widespread social disruption in these difficult times exposed domestic architecture's inability to respond to complex human needs.…”