Factors Influencing Mental Health Among Chinese Medical and Non-medical Students in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Xiong, Peng; Ming, Wai‐Kit; Zhang, Caiyun; Bai, Jian; Luo, Chunya; Cao, Wenyuan; Zhang, Fan; Tao, Qian

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.603331

Cited by 51 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…This was not consistent with a previous study by Ma, Z. et al (2020), in which it was found that freshmen tended to have less academic pressure and worry less about the future [ 43 ]. Consistent with another study by Xiong P. et al (2020), we found that students of non-medical colleges reported a higher prevalence of mental distress than medical students [ 44 ], and a higher level of distress was found among those who reported a history of chronic diseases, and, according to Louvardi, M. et al (2020) [ 45 ], a higher level of mental distress was experienced by low-income students (500 JD and below) and high-income students (1500 JD and above). Previous studies showed that levels of stress decrease with age as the older population has a lower level of knowledge about possible complications of disease, and they have greater faith and submission to mortality [ 46 ], which could explain why younger students, first year students and single students had a higher level of mental distress compared to others.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

The Prevalence of Mental Distress and Social Support among University Students in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abuhamdah

Naser

Abdelwahab

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Objectives: To examine the prevalence of mental distress among university students in Jordan. Methods: An online cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted between 12th of June and the 4th of August 2021 in Jordan to measure student mental stress using Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 (SRQ-20). Results: A total of 1063 university students participated in the study. One-third of the participating students reported that they had a history of COVID-19 infection. More than half of the participating university students (65.7%) were found to have mental distress (measured symptomatically by the SRQ-20 with a score of eight or more). The average mental distress score was 9.8 (SD: 5.5) out of 20. Female students, students from non-medical colleges, students in their last years of study, students with chronic diseases and those with low income were associated with high levels of mental distress (p < 0.05). With regards to social support, a moderate level of social support was received from three sources: persons considered as significant others, family members, and friends. The average social support score for the participating university students was 41.9 (SD: 10.3) out of 60 (equivalent to 69.8%). Conclusions: Mental distress is prevalent among university students in Jordan. There is a need for evidence-based governmental strategies and interventions that provide social support at universities such as self-help measures and professional mental health services as part of student health services that would be helpful to reduce the burden of mental distress of students and promote the mission of the integration of mental health in all university policies.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

The Prevalence of Mental Distress and Social Support among University Students in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abuhamdah

Naser

Abdelwahab

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…By summarizing the results presented above, we obtain three major findings. Firstly, we have found that in the face of a serious unknown public health emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic, personal health is a concern of the highest priority in the early stages, which is consistent with the results of the survey by Xiong et al ( 40 ) and Apuke and Omar ( 41 ). Our study further supports this assertion in terms of the distribution of rumor topics and the dynamic of the psychosocial characteristics.…”

Section: Discussion and Implicationsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…However, the regularity of these widely circulated rumors changing in topic over time and the implied psychosocial characteristics of the public have not received sufficient attention. After earlier opinion-based or commentary explorations ( 41 ), some studies have tried to find the behavioral intention of the public to disseminate information during the pandemic as well as antecedents through questionnaires or laboratory experiments ( 17 , 40 ). However, such cross-sectional and self-reported data sources not only lack objectivity, but also the generality of the results is limited by the sample and, in addition, cannot give a concrete and dynamic understanding of the psychological changes of the public.…”

Section: Discussion and Implicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internet Rumors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Dynamics of Topics and Public Psychologies

Xiao

Huang

Zhang

et al. 2021

Front. Public Health

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The capturing of social opinions, especially rumors, is a crucial issue in digital public health. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the discussions of related topics have increased exponentially in social media, with a large number of rumors on the Internet, which highly impede the harmony and sustainable development of society. As human health has never suffered a threat of this magnitude since the Internet era, past studies have lacked in-depth analysis of rumors regarding such a globally sweeping pandemic. This text-based analysis explores the dynamic features of Internet rumors during the COVID-19 pandemic considering the progress of the pandemic as time-series. Specifically, a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model is used to extract rumor topics that spread widely during the pandemic, and the extracted six rumor topics, i.e., “Human Immunity,” “Technology R&D,” “Virus Protection,” “People's Livelihood,” “Virus Spreading,” and “Psychosomatic Health” are found to show a certain degree of concentrated distribution at different stages of the pandemic. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) is used to statistically test the psychosocial dynamics reflected in the rumor texts, and the results show differences in psychosocial characteristics of rumors at different stages of the pandemic progression. There are also differences in the indicators of psychosocial characteristics between truth and disinformation. Our results reveal which topics of rumors and which psychosocial characteristics are more likely to spread at each stage of progress of the pandemic. The findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the changing public opinions and psychological dynamics during the pandemic, and also provide reference for public opinion responses to major public health emergencies that may arise in the future.

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“…Depression, anxiety, and stress defined as score of ≥ 10, ≥ 8, and ≥ 15, respectively. The scale has good reliability and validity and can be used as an effective tool for investigating the mental health of Chinese college students (the Cronbach’s α was 0.81, 0.80, and 0.87 for the depression, anxiety, and stress subscale, respectively) ( Xiong et al, 2021 ). In this study, the Cronbach’s α reliability coefficients for each subscale were also good (depression α = 0.900, anxiety α = 0.868, and stress α = 0.874) and the test–retest reliability was 0.971.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association Between Online Self-Directed Learning Ability and Negative Emotions Among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study in Anhui Province, East China

et al. 2021

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Background: This study investigated the correlation between depression, anxiety, and stress among college students engaged in online learning during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and self-directed learning (SDL) ability, which could provide a scientific basis for mental health education of the college students.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 5,558 students from two universities in Anhui province, East China. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and the Self-directed Learning Ability Scale were used to conduct an online questionnaire survey.Results: A total of 35.15, 36.32, and 17.24% of college students reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. Males and nonmedical students were at higher risks to suffer from depression, anxiety, and stress. In adjusted model, compared with Q1 of self-management ability, the odds ratio (OR) of the Q2, Q3, and Q4 were as follows: 0.635 (0.531–0.759), 0.504 (0.415–0.611), and 0.312 (0.248–0.392) for depression; 0.639 (0.535–0.764), 0.653 (0.540–0.789), and 0.421 (0.338–0.525) for anxiety; and 0.649 (0.523–0.805), 0.579 (0.457–0.733), and 0.482 (0.364–0.637) for stress. For information capability, decrease in risk was even more pronounced: Q2 (0.654, 0.540–0.794), Q3 (0.560, 0.454–0.690), and Q4 (0.233, 0.181–0.301) for depression; Q2 (0.781, 0.646–0.945), Q3 (0.616, 0.501–0.757), and Q4 (0.276, 0.216–0.353) for anxiety; and Q2 (0.444, 0.357–0.553), Q3 (0.454, 0.357–0.578), and Q4 (0.272, 0.202–0.368) for stress. Compared with the Q2 group of cooperation learning ability, cooperation learning ability quartiles were positively associated with depression (Q1: 1.382, 95% CI: 1.138–1.678), anxiety (Q4: 1.260, 95% CI: 1.008–1.576), and stress (Q1: 2.002, 95% CI: 1.583–2.532; Q3: 1.600, 95% CI: 1.252–2.044; Q4: 1.674, 95% CI: 1.243–2.255).Conclusion: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among college students was high for those studying online at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among nonmedical students and males. SDL ability was negatively associated with negative emotions of the college students during this period of online learning.

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Factors Influencing Mental Health Among Chinese Medical and Non-medical Students in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 51 publications

References 36 publications

The Prevalence of Mental Distress and Social Support among University Students in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Study

The Prevalence of Mental Distress and Social Support among University Students in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Study

Internet Rumors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Dynamics of Topics and Public Psychologies

Association Between Online Self-Directed Learning Ability and Negative Emotions Among College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study in Anhui Province, East China

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