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. 2022 Jun 21:13:920887.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.920887. eCollection 2022.

Assessing Knowledge, Preventive Practices, and Depression Among Chinese International Students and Local Korean Students in South Korea During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Online Cross-Sectional Study

Xiaoxu Jiang  1   2 , Bo Zhao  3   4 , Eun Woo Nam  3   4 , Fanlei Kong  1   2
Affiliations

Assessing Knowledge, Preventive Practices, and Depression Among Chinese International Students and Local Korean Students in South Korea During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Online Cross-Sectional Study

Xiaoxu Jiang et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Depression among university students and international university students is an increasing problem globally. This study aimed to clarify the differences on the conditions and determinants of the knowledge, preventive practices and depression of the Chinese international students and local Korean students in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online cross-sectional questionnaire including general demographic characteristics, COVID-19-related knowledge, preventive practice, and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was applied from March 23 to April 22, 2020. A total of 533 university students (171 Chinese international students and 362 local South Korean students) were included in the study. The majority of both Chinese international students and local South Korean students had a good comprehension of COVID-19. Chinese international students in South Korea showed better preventive practice than local Korean students, while the proportion of moderate to severe depression of Chinese international students was relatively higher (28.07%) than that of local Korean students (22.38%). Determinants of depression of Chinese international students in South Korea were information satisfaction, likelihood of survival after infection, symptoms of a cough and feelings of discrimination, while for local Korean students were gender, educational level, family, suspected symptoms, self-assessed physical health status, COVID-19 detection, population contact history and online sources of information. These results could be used as a reference for decreasing the depressive symptoms among the university students.

Keywords: COVID-19; Chinese international students; PHQ-9; South Korea; depression; preventive practices.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Type of information expected between Chinese international students and local Korean students in South Korea.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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