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Depression and anxiety consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal cohort study with university students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

V. Conceição*
Affiliation:
Epidemiology Research Unit (epiunit), Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
I. Rothes
Affiliation:
Center For Psychology At University Of Porto, Portugal, Faculty of Psychology and Education Science, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
R. Gusmão
Affiliation:
Epidemiology Research Unit (epiunit), Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
H. Barros
Affiliation:
Epidemiology Research Unit (epiunit), Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

For young people, just as in the general population, COVID-19 caused many changes in their lives. The literature review has shown an increased risk for mental illness symptoms as a consequence of the pandemic.

Objectives

With this study, we aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in university students’ anxiety and depression symptoms.

Methods

This study is part of a larger longitudinal research on university students’ mental health with the Portuguese version of The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Portuguese version of the Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) data with evaluations on January, May and October 2019 and June 2020, as well as socio-demographic information.

Results

341 university students (257 females and 84 males) were included in this study, with a mean age of 19.91 (SD=1.58). In June 2020, the mean for perceived well-being loss was 60.47% (SD=26.56) and 59.54% (SD=28.95) for mental health loss. In the PHQ-9, the proportion of students with scores equal or above 15 ranged between 22.6% and 25.5% in 2019, however, in June 2020, the proportion was significantly higher (37.0%). The proportion of GAD-7 scores above the cut-off 10 ranged between 46.0% and 47.8% in 2019, and, in 2020, 64.5% of the students scored 10 or above. Compared with preceding trends, PHQ-9 scores were 3.11 (CI=2.40-3.83) higher than expected, and GAD-7 scores were 3.56 (CI=2.75-5.37) higher.

Conclusions

COVID-19 had a negative impact on depressive and anxiety symptoms in university students, in line with the literature and confirming the vulnerability of young people in such uncertain times.

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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