The Influence of Covid-19 Lockdown on Body Mass Index, Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Medical Students

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc throughout the world, with 150 million cases to date and over 3 million lives claimed worldwide. Objectives: To explore the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on psychological health parameters i.e. depression, anxiety and stress as well as on body mass index among medical students studying in a private medical college in Pakistan. Study Design: Experimental study. Methodology: This study with enrolled students (n=233) was carried out after ethical review committee’s (ERC) approval at CMH Kharian Medical College (CKMC), Physiology Department, Kharian-Pakistan. Both male and female medical students were enrolled. In phase 1, the students reported to the Physiology laboratory where age and gender were recorded. The pre-lockdown readings of BMI and DASS-21(Depression, Anxiety, Stress) scale were taken. In phase-2, the post-lockdown readings of BMI and DASS-21 scale were taken once the students returned to campus. Statistical analysis: Data was analyzed by SPSS software, version 21. BMI and DASS-21 score were presented as mean + SD. Statistical significance was taken at p value <0.05. Results: In present study, results showed that there was a decrease in level of depression post-Covid-19-lockdown among enrolled subjects with significant p-values (0.019*) in the pre and post covid-19-lockdown comparison. Conclusion: We concluded that significant difference was seen between Pre & Post Covid-19-lockdown depression with p-value of <0.019. However, insignificant difference was seen between Pre & Post Covid-19-lockdown anxiety and stress with p-value of >0.05. Key Words: Covid-19 lockdown, Medical students, Depression, BMI and Anxiety.

Obesity and weight change during the COVID‐19 pandemic in children and adults: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…The quality assessment of the studies using the NOS ranged from 3 to 6, and the median was 4 (Table S3). Of the 74 included studies, there were 67 with data that could be meta-analyzed for at least one of the four outcomes [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][79][80][81][82][83][84][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95]…”

“…As described in Figure 1, a total of 20,955 articles were identified from the search, and after the removal of 7322 duplicates, 13,633 articles were screened for title and abstract. A full‐text screening was conducted on 296 articles, and 74 met the final inclusion and exclusion criteria and were included in the review 39–112 . Table 1 summarizes the study characteristics.…”

“…In total, 3,213,776 subjects from 29 countries were included in this review. All identified studies were observational, with 64 defined as cohort (prospective, 40,41,43–50,52–59,61–63,65–70,72–74,76–94,96–101,103,105–108,110–112 retrospective, or ambidirectional) and 10 as repeated cross section 39,42,51,64,71,75,95,102,104,109 . Extracted data from each study are provided in Table S2.…”

“…The quality assessment of the studies using the NOS ranged from 3 to 6, and the median was 4 (Table S3). Of the 74 included studies, there were 67 with data that could be meta‐analyzed for at least one of the four outcomes 39–55,58–77,79–84,86–100,102–105,107–110,112 owing to diversity in outcome measurement.…”

COVID-19 and mental health: A systematic review of international medical student surveys

“…Studies were also administered in other parts of Asia, including Pakistan, Japan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Nepal, and Singapore. At Harian Medical College in Pakistan, a study of 233 students showed a significant decrease in the level of depression and an increase in the level of anxiety and stress among medical students (Masud et al, 2021). At the Okayama University School of Medicine in Japan, a survey of 473 medical students found that students' mental health status significantly worsened after the Japanese State of Emergency regarding the pandemic was implemented (Nishimura et al, 2021).…”