Psychological Impact of the COVID 19 Pandemic among College Students: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) has spread very rapidly all over the globe, causing an outbreak of acute infectious pneumonia. This pandemic brought not only the risk of death but also psychological pressure on people and remarkably on college students. To assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 on college students. A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted on college students studying diploma, graduation, and post-graduation irrespective of their gender was included in the study.  The data was collected through online mode by providing links to fill google form.  The survey tool was disseminated in various messenger groups and social media networks.  The survey tool comprises demographics, COVID-19 stressors, generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD 7), and patient health questionnaire (PHQ 9) scale. Chi-square was used to find the association between demographic characters with anxiety and depression. 443 students participated in this web-based survey. Among all participants, 44.25% were normal range, 31.38% are mild anxiety, 18.97% were moderate anxiety, and 5.42% were severe anxiety.  Results also indicated that there were 37.25% participants were in normal range, about 27% were mild depression, 22.13% moderate depression, 7.45% moderately severe depression and 6.1% severe depression. All the variables other than gender, place of residence, and steady family income were significantly associated with anxiety, whereas gender and place of residence variables were not significantly associated with depression. To conclude, the mental health of college students was significantly affected by the pandemic. More help and support from society, families and colleges would be supportive to them. It is suggested that the government and colleges should collaborate to resolve this problem by providing high-quality, timely crisis oriented psychological services to college students.