Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 29;32(4):873-881.
doi: 10.1007/s40670-022-01580-3. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Mental Health of Medical Students Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic: a 3-Year Prospective Study

Mariana Berwerth Pereira  1 , Amanda Victoria Casagrande  1 , Beatriz Cantieri Almeida  1 , Beatriz Astolfi Neves  1 , Thamires Clair Rodrigues Pereira da Silva  1 , Fabricio Petermann Choueiri Miskulin  1 , Thais Perissotto  1 , Salma Rose Imanari Ribeiz  1   2 , Paula Villela Nunes  1   2
Affiliations

Mental Health of Medical Students Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic: a 3-Year Prospective Study

Mariana Berwerth Pereira et al. Med Sci Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Very few studies prospectively analyzed medical students' mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to prospectively evaluate mental health in medical students in 2018, 2019, and 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Methods: All students from first to fourth year were invited to participate in 2018. These students were also invited to participate in the same period in 2019 and 2020 (during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown). The Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20), created by the WHO to investigate 20 nonpsychotic psychiatric symptoms, was used to evaluate common mental disorders. The cut-off for relevant symptom severity for mental distress is seven (SRQ-20 ≥ 7).

Results: In the years 2018, 2019, and 2020, a total of 860 SRQ-20 questionnaires were completed. Overall, mean SRQ-20 scores were 8.2 ± 4.6, and SRQ-20 ≥ 7 frequency was 60.5%. When comparing the years 2018, 2019, and 2020, no differences were found for either SRQ-20 scores (8.4 ± 4.7, 8.2 ± 4.6, and 7.8 ± 4.4, respectively; p = 0.351) or SRQ-20 ≥ 7 frequency (62.2%, 60.9%, and 59.2%, respectively; p = 0.762).

Conclusion: In contrast to our initial hypothesis, stable results on mental health measures were found even during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. Maintenance of daily routines through distance learning and the continuation of adapted clerkship activities with strict safety measures could have contributed to these results. However, this study points to high overall levels of common mental disorders, especially among women. Further studies should be conducted to understand all the factors responsible for such stability, such as social and economic support, resilience, or even previous high levels of common mental disorders.

Keywords: COVID-19; Distance learning; Medical students; Mental health; Prospective.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 mean scores in 2018, 2019, and 2020 cohorts
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Pacheco JP, Giacomin HT, Tam WW, Ribeiro TB, Arab C, Bezerra IM, et al. Mental health problems among medical students in Brazil: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry. 2017;39(4):369–378. doi: 10.1590/1516-4446-2017-2223. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tian-Ci Quek T, Tam W-S, X Tran B, Zhang M, Zhang Z, Su-Hui Ho C, et al. The global prevalence of anxiety among medical students: a meta-analysis. Int J Envi Res Pub Health. 2019;16(15):2735. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rotenstein LS, Ramos MA, Torre M, Segal JB, Peluso MJ, Guille C, et al. Prevalence of depression, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation among medical students: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA. 2016;316(21):2214–2236. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.17324. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Saraswathi I, Saikarthik J, Kumar KS, Srinivasan KM, Ardhanaari M, Gunapriya R. Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health status of undergraduate medical students in a COVID-19 treating medical college: a prospective longitudinal study. PeerJ. 2020;8:e10164. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10164. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bolatov AK, Seisembekov TZ, Askarova AZ, Baikanova RK, Smailova DS, Fabbro E. Online-learning due to COVID-19 improved mental health among medical students. Med Sci Educ. 2020:1–10. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources