Background: This study aimed to examine scores on a validated questionnaires measure of somatic symptoms in Spanish university students sample during the COVID-19 pandemic and address the relationship of somatic symptoms with some variables as gender, degree, course and emotions.
Methods:The sample was conducted in Spanish universitary students from 12 May 2020 to 19 May 2020, eight weeks after the Spanish government decreed a state of alarm (n = 473). All participants answered an anonymous questionnaire and two validated questionnaires (PHQ-15 and GHQ-28).Results: The total PHQ-15 mean score was 12.90 and GHQ-28 was 13.67 with differences by gender. In general, males reported significantly less symptoms than females. The item characteristics of the 15 items of the PHQ-15 demonstrated that the most frequent somatic symptoms were feeling tired, headaches, back pain and sleep problems. We have found few relationships between items of PHQ-15 and degree and course. However, emotions were associated with some of the items of PHQ-15. In particular, sadness, fear, disgust and security. In contrast, anger did not show any significant differences.Conclusions: This investigation confirms that there were some somatic symptoms among Spanish university students, concretely fatigue and sleep problems during COVID-19 pandemic. These somatic symptoms were relationed with unpleasant emotions as sadness and disgust. It is necessary to implement preventive mental health strategies at the University in conjunction with epidemic and pandemic response strategies before, during and after of COVID-19 outbreak to reduce future psychosomatic problems among university students.