Distress among Brazilian university students due to the Covid-19 pandemic: survey results and reflections
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Abstract
The first case of infection with the new coronavirus was identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined the disease epidemic as a pandemic. Thus, a quarantine was imposed by many governments. As a consequence, and given that epidemiological outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as Covid-19, are associated with psychological disorders and symptoms of mental illness, researchers at the Shanghai Mental Health Center have created the Covid-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI), in which the results are obtained: normal, mild/moderate distress and severe distress. The main objective of the study was based on the application of CPDI, in order to identify the health and well-being of Brazilian students from different undergraduate courses at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP) during the Covid-19 pandemic and to test the hypothesis that medical students suffer more than students from other courses. The research is based on a cross-sectional observational study, in which we applied, using Google Forms R , the questions contained in CPDI, among with demographic data: age, sex, educational institution, undergraduate course and school year. The Index was applied online for seven days in which a total of 654 valid responses were obtained: 501 (76.6%) female and 149 (22.8%) male. Regarding age, 333 students (50.91%) were 17-20 years old, 279 (42.66%) between 21-25, 30 (4.59%) between 26-30 and 12 (1.84%) between 31-50. The results indicate that the participants reported significant psychological distress, according to the CPDI score. Practically 90% (87.92%) of the students experienced suffering, while only 12.08% did not suffer. The study provides the first empirical evidence on the level of psychological distress in Brazilian university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, it suggests support and monitoring of university students during and after the pandemic, with effective and efficient intervention in their mental health.
Summary boxes
SECTION 1
Researchers at the Shanghai Mental Health Center have created the Covid-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI), to measure the amount of psychological suffering of the population, due to the pandemic of Coronavirus. Before our research, the survey had been applicated in China and Iran. The main objective of the study was to identify with the survey, the health and well-being of Brazilian students from different undergraduate courses at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP) during the Covid-19 pandemic and to test the hypothesis that medical students suffer more than students from other courses.
SECTION 2
The study provides the first empirical evidence on the level of psychological distress in Brazilian university students during the Covid-19 pandemic, practically 90% (87.92%) of the students experienced some suffering.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.19.20135251: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: The survey was approved by the ethic committee of Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, was voluntary, and we assured the participants confidentiality and anonymity of their responses, evidenced by the free and informed consent term (can be seen in the appendix), in which the participants had to read and accept it in order to answer it.
Consent: The survey was approved by the ethic committee of Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, was voluntary, and we assured the participants confidentiality and anonymity of their responses, evidenced by the free and informed consent term (can be seen in the appendix), in which the participants had to read …SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.19.20135251: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: The survey was approved by the ethic committee of Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, was voluntary, and we assured the participants confidentiality and anonymity of their responses, evidenced by the free and informed consent term (can be seen in the appendix), in which the participants had to read and accept it in order to answer it.
Consent: The survey was approved by the ethic committee of Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, was voluntary, and we assured the participants confidentiality and anonymity of their responses, evidenced by the free and informed consent term (can be seen in the appendix), in which the participants had to read and accept it in order to answer it.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:The study has certain limitations. First, the research is based on a cross-sectional observational study. Therefore, there was no follow-up of individuals. Second, our sample does not reflect the national college students, since the objective was to evaluate the students from PUC/SP. Third, although there were responses from several undergraduate courses at the University, some of them presented a very small sample number, such as Communication and Multimedia (0.153%), Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (0.153%), Theology (0.306%), Philosophy (0.306%), when compared to other courses, such as Medicine (18.196%). The study provides the first empirical evidence on the level of psychological distress in Brazilian university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results demonstrate a significant psychological disorder in the participants. Therefore, the study suggests support and monitoring of university students during and after the pandemic, with effective and efficient intervention in their mental health, such as (1) greater attention to vulnerable groups, such as women, non-medical interns and students of others courses that not Medicine; (2) University strategy, with planning and coordination for psychological and medical care and assistance for psychologically affected students, in an accessible and free way; (3) future monitoring, in order to ensure longitudinal monitoring of those with psychological distress, as well as an active search for new cases; (4) joint ...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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