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. 2021 Sep 2;2(3):e28158.
doi: 10.2196/28158. eCollection 2021 Jul-Sep.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of College Students in India: Cross-sectional Web-Based Study

Amar Prashad Chaudhary  1 , Narayan Sah Sonar  2 , Jamuna Tr  1 , Moumita Banerjee  3 , Shailesh Yadav  1
Affiliations

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of College Students in India: Cross-sectional Web-Based Study

Amar Prashad Chaudhary et al. JMIRx Med. .

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a mental health crisis among college students in India due to lockdown restrictions, overwhelming numbers of COVID-19 cases, financial difficulty, etc. This mental health crisis has led to high degrees of fear, anxiety, and depression among college students.

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate symptoms of fear, depression, and anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic among college students in India.

Methods: This cross-sectional web-based study was conducted using a Google Forms questionnaire. The Google Form included a sociodemographic questionnaire and psychometric scales evaluating the psychological and behavioral impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed in the study.

Results: A total of 324 college students participated in this study, of whom 180 (55.6%) were male and 144 (44.4%) were female. After assessment of the psychometric scales, it was found that of the 324 students, 223 (68.8%) had high fear of COVID-19, 93 (28.7%) had moderate to severe depression, and 167 (51.5%) had mild to severe anxiety. Among the identified risk factors, having a family member who was infected with COVID-19 was significantly associated with anxiety and depression, with P values of .02 and .001, respectively. In addition, the correlations of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were found to be 0.492 and 0.474, respectively.

Conclusions: This research concludes that there is a very high fear of COVID-19 among students, along with anxiety and depression symptoms. This study also concludes that the Fear of COVID-19 Scale has a moderate positive correlation with the anxiety and depression scales, respectively.

Keywords: COVID-19; FCV-19S; GAD-7; PHQ-9; anxiety; depression; fear; mental health; pandemic; students.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Update of

  • https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.07.21250695v2
  • JMIRx Med. 2:e28158.

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