Impact of COVID-19 on University Students’ Quality of life and mental health in Greece

Abstract   COVID-19 has a serious impact on people’s physical health and mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted an increasing deterioration of university students’ quality of life and mental health due to several factors. The COVID-19 pandemic forced university students to take online classes, which may have bad impacts on students’ learning. In addition, the students lost many job opportunities during the pandemic. Faced with employment and study pressure and worried about the epidemic, university students were prone to increased overall negative emotion, anxiety and depression. Our study aims to conduct a timely assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life and mental health of University students. We conducted a cross sectional study using an online interview survey in students at public universities in Greece to better understand the effects of the pandemic on their quality of life and mental health. Three questionnaires were used (WHOQOL-BREF, IES-R and HADS). The data were analyzed with IBM SPSS 26. 1.266 university students from public Greek Universities participated in the study, 73.1% of which were female, 26,3% were male. We observed that 55,8% had a score lower in psychological domain and 52,3% in social domain of WHOQOL-BREF. Also 46.6% of the respondents had a score of 37+ on the IES-R questionnaire, 45% of the respondents had abnormal results regarding anxiety and 33.6% had abnormal results regarding depression. Due to the long-lasting pandemic and onerous measures such as lockdown and stay-at-home orders, the COVID-19 pandemic brings negative impacts on University education and quality of life of students. The findings of our study highlight the urgent need to develop interventions and preventive strategies to address the quality of life and mental health of University students. Key messages • There is a need for preventative measures for university students to ensure that their mental health and quality of life do not suffer. • Female students reached higher levels of anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic period.


Background:
Firstly, we aim to describe any differences in the mean levels of correlates and indicators of mental health and wellbeing between young (25-39 years) and middle-aged adults (40-55 years). Secondly, we aim to compare the network models depicting interrelations between correlates and indicators of mental health and wellbeing among these age groups.

Methods:
This paper draws on longitudinal data from 6 waves (2013-2018) of the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) study, with a total sample of 5,315 individuals, including 2,044 young (25-39 years) and 3,271 middle-aged (40-55 years) participants. We used network analysis to examine and present complex relationships between the correlates and the indicators of mental health and wellbeing. Results: Middle-aged individuals had worse mental health and wellbeing on all indicators but energy and optimism, which did not differ across groups. The effect sizes (according to Cohen's d) were small, reaching the maximum of 0.20 for sadness. Despite higher household income and financial satisfaction, perceived job insecurity and work strain were higher in midlife, with socioeconomic prestige being lower. Moreover, middle-aged individuals had lower social support, relationships satisfaction, and health satisfaction. The network was denser in midlife, with two direct interrelations being stronger in this age group: health satisfaction and energy/optimism as well as accommodation satisfaction and life satisfaction. There were also several other differences in indirect interrelations between correlates and indicators of mental health and wellbeing, including a potentially more important role of self-mastery in midlife in bridging socioeconomic indicators, wellbeing and mental health.

Conclusions:
We suggest further exploring the workplace as an avenue to improving population mental health and wellbeing, with a particular focus on the role of self-mastery. Key messages: Middle-aged individuals appear to have worse mental health and lower wellbeing than young adults. Health satisfaction is not only lower in midlife, but it seems of greater importance for mental health and wellbeing. COVID-19 has a serious impact on people's physical health and mental health. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted an increasing deterioration of university students' quality of life and mental health due to several factors. The COVID-19 pandemic forced university students to take online classes, which may have bad impacts on students' learning. In addition, the students lost many job opportunities during the pandemic. Faced with employment and study pressure and worried about the epidemic, university students were prone to increased overall negative emotion, anxiety and depression.
Our study aims to conduct a timely assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life and mental health of University students. We conducted a cross sectional study using an online interview survey in students at public universities in Greece to better understand the effects of the pandemic on their quality of life and mental health. Three questionnaires were used (WHOQOL-BREF, IES-R and HADS). The data were analyzed with IBM SPSS 26. 1.266 university students from public Greek Universities participated in the study, 73.1% of which were female, 26,3% were male. We observed that 55,8% had a score lower in psychological domain and 52,3% in social domain of WHOQOL-BREF. Also 46.6% of the respondents had a score of 37+ on the IES-R questionnaire, 45% of the respondents had abnormal results regarding anxiety and 33.6% had abnormal results regarding depression. Due to the long-lasting pandemic and onerous measures such as lockdown and stay-at-home orders, the COVID-19 pandemic brings negative impacts on University education and quality of life of students. The findings of our study highlight the urgent need to develop interventions and preventive strategies to address the quality of life and mental health of University students.

Key messages:
There is a need for preventative measures for university students to ensure that their mental health and quality of life do not suffer. Female students reached higher levels of anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic period.
Abstract citation ID: ckac131.477 Low resilience as risk factor of mental disorders during COVID-19 pandemic: A cohort study