Psychological Impairment and Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Students in Pakistan: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

• Published in: Disaster medicine and public health preparedness Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 920 - 926
• Main Authors: Salman, Muhammad, Asif, Noman, Mustafa, Zia Ul, Khan, Tahir Mehmood, Shehzadi, Naureen, Tahir, Humera, Raza, Muhammad Husnnain, Khan, Muhammad Tanveer, Hussain, Khalid, Khan, Yusra Habib, Butt, Muhammad Hammad, Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.06.2022
• Subjects: Age groups; Anxiety disorders; Coping; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Cross-sectional studies; Data collection; Disease; Education; Epidemics; Females; Medical research; Mental depression; Original Research; Pandemics; Pharmacy; Questionnaires; Students; University students; Variance analysis; Lahore Pakistan; Pakistan; COVID-19; university students; anxiety; Pakistan; depression; coping
• ISSN: 1935-7893; 1938-744X; 1938-744X
• DOI: 10.1017/dmp.2020.397

High levels of stress are expected when crises affect people’s lives. Therefore, this Web-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among university students from Pakistan to investigate the psychological impairment and coping strategies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Google Forms were used to disseminate the online questionnaire to assess anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), and coping strategies (Brief-COPE). A total of 1134 responses (age, 21.7 ± 3.5 y) were included. The frequency of students having moderate-severe anxiety and depression (score ≥ 10) were ≈ 34% and 45%, respectively. The respondents’ aged ≥ 31 y had significantly lower depression score than those ≤ 20 y (P = 0.047). Males had significantly less anxiety (6.62 ± 5.70 vs 7.84 ± 5.60; P = 0.001) and depression (8.73 ± 6.84 vs 9.71 ± 7.06; P = 0.031) scores. Those having family members, friends, or acquaintances infected with disease had significantly higher anxiety scores (8.89 ± 5.74 vs 7.09 ± 5.56; P < 0.001). Regarding coping strategies, the majority of respondents were found to have adopted religious/spiritual coping (6.45 ± 1.68) followed by acceptance (5.58 ± 1.65), self-distraction (4.97 ± 1.61), and active coping (4.81 ± 1.57). In conclusion, COVID-19 caused significant impairment on mental health of the students. The most frequent coping strategies adopted by students were religious/spiritual and acceptance coping. During epidemics, mental health of students should not be neglected.