Psychological burden in Portuguese university student's during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the psychological burden of the COVID-19 pandemic in the students of the University of Porto, the second largest Portuguese university, and to uncover factors associated with mental health indicators. We used an online survey to perform a cross-sectional study that evaluated students' perceptions, daily activities, and psychological state during the pandemic. Depression symptoms and risk were measure by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and resilience levels were quantified by the 9-item Resilience Evaluation Scale. Self-perceived levels of anxiety and mental health status were evaluated. Among 1751 responses obtained, 1447 were included. Most students were female (72.3%) and were taking a Masters degree (58.4%). The course with more responses was Engineering (25.5%), followed by Medicine (13.2%). The prevalence rates for higher anxiety levels, depression risk and low resilience levels were 66.7%, 37.3% and 24.9%, respectively. The factors associated with better psychological outcomes were being male, spending more time studying, having a job, performing extracurricular activities, physical exercise and relaxing activities. In contrast, spending more time watching news, difficulty accessing on-line teaching and absence of contact with family or friends, were associated with worse psychological indicators. Although all areas of formation presented substantial levels of depressive symptoms, Architectures/Arts, Sciences and Humanities scored significantly more in the depression scale. Medicine students had significantly higher resilience levels compared to other areas of formation. The COVID-19 outbreak had a considerable impact in the psychological state of University of Porto's students. Therefore, measures should be taken to reduce the psychological burden caused by the pandemic.