Comparison of Students' Mental Wellbeing, Anxiety, Depression, and Quality of Life During COVID-19's Full and Partial (Smart) Lockdowns: A Follow-Up Study at a 5-Month Interval

Abstract

Objective: Scholars have debated the COVID-19's full and partial lockdowns' effectivity to control the transmission of the new case. They emphasized the provision of required economic and social resources worldwide. Past literature related to COVID-19 has contributed little evidence to examine the efficacy of full and partial lockdown measures with experimental perspectives at different intervals. This study bridges this literature gap and explores the full and smart lockdowns' impacts on Pakistani students' mental health, depression, quality of life, and anxiety symptoms, during the various waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: This pretest and posttest experimental designed web-based survey recruited 40 students from March 23 to August 23, 2020, and recorded their responses. The study incorporated four standardized psychological instruments to receive the desired datasets related to students' mental health, quality of life, anxiety, and depression. Researchers shared data links with the participants via social media, WhatsApp. The study applied one-way and multivariate ANOVA tests (analysis of variance) to draw the desired results.

Results: This study's findings suggest that both full and partial COVID-19 lockdowns effectively improve students' mental health and quality of life. These measures help reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms among university students. The study results exhibit that partial lockdown (PL) is more effective in improving quality of life. Besides, PL helps reduce anxiety symptoms than complete lockdown among Pakistani students.

Conclusion: The present study's findings suggest that students are vulnerable. They need particular interventions and preventive measures to protect and improve their mental health and quality of life during a global pandemic. As the stressful experience of the epidemic persists in Pakistan. It will also be interesting to examine the psychological impact of the successive waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 full lockdown; COVID-19 preventive health behavior; anxiety; depression; mental health; quality of life; smart lockdown.

Figure 1

Within group, pretest–posttest design, quasi-experimental research for both full and partial lockdown situations.

Figure 2

Study flow chart of activities. Illustrative within-group, pretest–posttest design, quasi-experimental research for both full and partial lockdown situations.

Figure 3

Mean difference of quality of life between T-0 (pretesting phase), T-1 (posttesting phase), and T-2 (follow-up phase) with different levels of anxiety in Pakistan students during the COVID-19 epidemic lockdown (N = 40). Time, three phases; bai_cata, severity level of anxiety; quality of life total, quality of life.

Figure 4

Mean difference of quality of life between T-0 (pretesting phase), T-1 (posttesting phase), and T-2 (follow-up phase) with different levels of depression in Pakistan students during the COVID-19 epidemic lockdown (N = 40). Time, three phases; bdi_cata, severity level of depression; quality of life total, quality of life.

Figure 5

Mean difference of mental health between T-0 (pretesting phase), T-1 (posttesting phase), and T-2 (follow-up phase) with different levels of anxiety in Pakistan students during the COVID-19 epidemic lockdown (N = 40). Time, three phases; bai_cata, severity level of anxiety; quality of life total, quality of life.

Figure 6

Mean difference of mental health between T-0 (pretesting phase), T-1 (posttesting phase), and T-2 (follow-up phase) with different levels of depression in Pakistan students during COVID-19 epidemic lockdown (N = 40). Time, three phases; bdi_cata, severity level of depression; quality of life total, quality of life.

Figure 7

Illustrative mean difference of mental health between the pretesting phase (T-0), posttesting phase (T-1), and follow-up phase (T-2) in Pakistan students during the COVID-19 epidemic lockdown (N = 40).

Figure 8

Illustrative mean difference of anxiety disorder between the pretesting phase (T-0), posttesting phase (T-1), and follow-up phase (T-2) in Pakistan students during the COVID-19 epidemic lockdown (N = 40).

Figure 9

Illustrative mean difference of depression disorder between the pretesting phase (T-0), posttesting phase (T-1), and follow-up phase (T-2) in Pakistan students during the COVID-19 Epidemic lockdown (N = 40).

Figure 10

Illustrative mean difference of quality of life between the pretesting phase (T-0), posttesting phase (T-1), and follow-up phase (T-2) in Pakistan students during the COVID-19 epidemic lockdown (N = 40).