Mental State of Students During the Pandemic and Affecting Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Evaluation of the psychological symptoms in healthcare students and the development of new strategies to improve their mental health are of great importance. The study was aimed at determining the mental state of students, prospective healthcare workers, during the pandemic, and the influencing factors. The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at a Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Health in Turkey. The sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, and Brief Symptom Inventory were used to collect data. The study was conducted with 828 students. In study, variables such as sleep, negative news about COVID-19, sex, income status, presence of social support, department students attend, choosing the profession willingly, and having a physical/mental illness were determined to have an effect on the mental state. The results of this study suggest that there is a relationship between the fear of COVID-19 and mental health state of the students.

COVID-19 fear among junior undergraduate nursing students during the pandemic in South Africa

“…In this study, the total score of the FCV-19S was 19.20 (± 6.81) out of a possible 35, indicating mild fear of COVID-19 during the pandemic. These findings were similar to other nursing student studies such as: Turkey (19.35 ± 5.90) (Nehir & Gungor Tavsanli 2021 ), Egypt among first year nursing students (17.96 ± 5.10) (Metwally Elsayed & Ahmed Ghazi 2021 ) and South Africa among fourth year students (20.27 ± 7) (Chipps et al 2022 ). The total FCV-19S score reported in this study may be because of the orientation programme offered by the university that included support from academic and clinical staff together with information of COVID-19, which reduced their feelings of anxiety (Chipps, Jarvis & Brysiewicz 2021 , Jarvis et al 2021 ).…”

The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Hong Kong Nursing Students’ Mental Health and Quality of Life

“…In another study of 2605 Norwegian undergraduate nursing students, the FCV-19S item mean score was 2.45 (SD ± 0.8) [ 46 ]. Another study evaluated the psychological states of 828 healthcare students in Turkey and found a lower mean FCV19S score of 19.35 (SD ± 5.90) [ 19 ]. Our participants’ higher score for the FCV-19S might be due to the perceived risk of the highly contagious Corona, along with local social media news of the upsurge in infected cases and continued overcrowding in hospital admissions [ 47 ].…”

“…A meta-analysis reviewed 27 studies assessing the psychological effects of COVID-19 among 90,879 college students in 15 countries, and found that 39.4%, 31.2%, 26.0%, 29.8%, and 50.5% of students had anxiety, depression, stress, post-traumatic stress, and impaired sleep quality, respectively [ 18 ]. The study reported the adverse psychological effects on university or college students, and highlighted the necessity of establishing appropriate health interventions or strategies to meet their emotional and psychosocial needs [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Nehir and Gungor Tavsanli (2021) found a significant relationship between the fear of COVID-19 and students’ emotional states.…”

“…The factors affecting emotional states included information about COVID-19, gender, financial status, social assistance, study programs, etc. [ 19 ]. Local studies also reflected that university students’ mental health had been remarkably affected by various factors during the pandemic, e.g., teaching and learning modes and fear of getting infected [ 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

“…Globally, medical, nursing, and physiotherapy students made indispensable contributions to caring for patients during the pandemic. However, psychological symptoms or distress, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression among healthcare students during the pandemic were not uncommon [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 25 , 26 ]. The long timeframe of academic learning and substantial workload, alongside demanding clinical practicums in hospitals facing life and death issues, including the high contagion risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, further intensified the adverse physical and psychological impacts on the wellbeing of healthcare students [ 27 ].…”