MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional observational study comprised 523 health science students. A well-structured online questionnaire consisting of closed-ended questions based on student's general information, Patient Heath Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7 scales were used to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: SPSS-25 was used to analyze the outcome of this study. Multiple linear regression analysis test was used to assess variables which had impact on PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores among the participants. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
RESULTS: Among the 523 participants, 365 (69.55%) students were from developing countries and 158 (30.21%) from developed countries; 424 (81.1%) students were tested negative for COVID-19 and 99 (18.9%) had suffered from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection during pandemic. The mean GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores were 7.16 ± 5.755 and 7.30 ± 6.166, respectively. Significant impact on anxiety levels was associated with age, gender, education status, and COVID-19 positive patient, while depression was not significantly associated with gender, COVID-19, and its reported symptoms in participants.
CONCLUSION: As the world is trying to contain the health effects of COVID-19, the psychological effects might take a longer time to be addressed. Our study highlights the dire need to identify mental well-being of health science students as this may have a direct impact on their professional commitments and future responsibilities.
Methods: We adopted a comparative cross-sectional study on pre-clinical medical students who appeared in two different admission tests. The stress, anxiety, and depression levels of students were measured by the depression, anxiety, stress scale (DASS-21), and their burnout level was measured by the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory.
Results: The stress, anxiety, and depression scores between MMI and PI were not significantly different (p-value > 0.05). The personal, work and client burnout scores between MMI and PI were not significantly different (p-value > 0.05). The prevalence of stress (MMI = 39%, PI = 36.9%), anxiety (MMI = 78%, PI = 67.4%), depression (MMI = 41%, PI = 36.2%) and burnout (MMI = 29%, PI = 31.9%) between MMI and PI cohorts was not significantly different (p-value > 0.05). These results showed similar levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout in students at the end of the pre-clinical phase.
Conclusions: This study showed similar psychological health status of the pre-clinical students who were enrolled by two different admission tests. The prevalence of stress, anxiety, burnout, and depression among the pre-clinical medical students was comparable to the global prevalence. The results indicate that medical schools can consider implementing either MMI or PI to recruit suitable candidates for medical training.
Materials and Methods: An online survey of 35 questions was conducted to evaluate impact on (i) general orthopaedic practice (ii) hospital protocols (iii) out-patient practice (iv) surgical practice (v) personal protective equipment (PPE) use and (vi) post-lockdown preparedness.
Results: A total number of 588 practising orthopaedic surgeons from India completed the survey. Majority (88.3%) found severe impact (>50%) on trauma surgery and non-trauma surgery with significant reduction in out -patient attendance compared to corresponding time in 2019. There were significant changes made in individual hospital protocols (91.7 %). Appropriate required PPE was available in majority of the hospitals (74.3%). No remodelling or upgrading of the existing operating theatre infrastructure was done by most surgeons (89.5%).
Conclusion: This pan India survey of orthopaedic surgeons has indicated that COVID-19 has had a profound impact on their outpatient and surgical trauma and non-trauma practice, due to the lockdown and resulted in significant changes to hospital protocols. Preparedness to resume clinical and surgical practice was associated with anxiety in two-thirds of the respondents. Majority of the orthopaedic practitioners felt that they would continue to conduct pre-operative COVID-19 screening and use PPE even after the lockdown is over.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional survey-based study comprised 1,000 adults residing in Pakistan. A questionnaire was formulated and circulated among adult population of Pakistan, the depression and anxiety symptoms using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scales were assessed.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Independent t-test, cross tabulation, and regression analysis were used to identify variables having impact on PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
RESULTS: Among 1,000 participants, 573 were males and 427 were females who completed the survey. Majority were restricted to home for more than 40 days. Considerable number of participants reported depressive (540, 54%) and anxiety (480, 48%) symptoms. Gender, age, earnings, and occupation have significant relation with psychological distress, although similar was not found with education levels.
CONCLUSION: Psychological distress, a concerning yet addressable issue was found among adults arising amid COVID-19 outbreak. Currently, physical health effects of COVID-19 are being looked, while mental health effects being under-addressed. This issue should be addressed to avoid any psychological impact in future.
METHODS: We searched online databases for all related papers through the comprehensive international data bases of Institute of PubMed/ MEDLINE, ISI/WOS and Scopus up to December 2019, using relevant keywords. Overall, 14 studies were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis.
RESULTS: The total sample size of all selected studies was 399,550 individuals with age range of 6 to ≥65 years old. We found a significant positive association between skipping breakfast and Odds Ratio (OR) of depression (pooled OR: 1.39; 95% CI: 1.34-1.44), stress (pooled OR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.04-1.43) and psychological distress (pooled OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.47-1.62). In contrast, there was no significant association between skipping breakfast and anxiety in all age cohort (pooled OR: 1.31; 95% CI: 0.97-1.65). However, subgroup analysis based on age stratification showed that there was a significant positive association between skipping breakfast and anxiety in adolescences (pooled OR: 1.51; 95% CI: 1.25-1.77).
CONCLUSION: In conclusion, skipping breakfast was positively associated with odds of depression, stress and psychological distress in all age groups and anxiety in adolescence, underlining impact of breakfast on mental health.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted at selected government and private universities throughout Malaysia. A total of 1851 students participated in this study. The students were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires, including socio-demographic, academic, and psychosocial characteristics. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaire was used to measure the prevalence risk of anxiety among the students. Chi-square analysis was conducted to find the relationship between the variables and anxiety, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictors.
RESULTS: The response rate was 97.90%, where 1821 out of 1860 students participated in the study. The prevalence risk of anxiety in this study was recorded at 29%. The data revealed that academic year, financial support for the study, alcohol consumption, poor sleep quality, body mass index (BMI), having a good friend in the university, having doubt regarding the future, actively involved in the society, and having problems with other students and lecturer(s) were significantly associated with risk of anxiety; with the academic year as the primary predictor.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the current prevalence risk of anxiety among university students in Malaysia. The outcome of this study can serve as the evident baseline data and help with the development of specific interventions in addressing and managing the issue appropriately.
DESIGN: A cross-sectional study performed using an anonymous online questionnaire distributed through social media, email and the Department of Social Welfare.
SETTING: Malaysian families were invited to answer the questionnaires. The sampling was performed between 12 May 2020 and 9 June 2020.
INTERVENTION: The psychological impact was assessed using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and Children's Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES). The mental health status was assessed using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) 21.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: (1) Psychological impact on Malaysian families. (2) Prevalence of mental health status of Malaysian families during COVID-19 pandemic.
RESULT: A total of 409 Malaysian families have responded (409 parents and 348 children), 154 respondents (38%) reported high psychological impact (score 14) for psychological construct and 189 respondents (46%) reported high psychological impact (score 6) for behavioural construct. A significantly higher proportion of respondents with not permanent employment status of the family lead reported high psychological impact. The prevalence of anxiety reported from family respondents was 23%. Forty-five children answered the DASS-21 questionnaire; 28.5% reported anxiety, 31.4% reported depression and 13.3% reported stress. The job security status of the family lead was found to be the predictive factor for the mean total IES-R score (psychological construct) and ethnicity for mean total CRIES-8 and CRIES-13.
CONCLUSION: Rates of depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic were high. Findings suggest that urgent measures to ensure job security among Malaysian families are important to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychosocial and mental health outcomes.