Quality of life and depressive symptoms among Peruvian university students during the COVID-19 pandemic

  1. Joel Figueroa-Quiñones
  2. Miguel Ipanaqué-Zapata
  3. Daniel Machay-Pak
  4. Juan Rodríguez-Ruiz

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Abstract

Objectives

Characterize the quality of life and depressive symptoms of university students in Peru during the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine the associated factors.

Methods

Multi-centre study in 1634 university students recruited by convenience sampling. Quality of life (QoL) was assessed with the European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions at three levels (EQ-5D-3L) and depressive symptoms with the Patient Health Questionarie-9 (PHQ-9). To evaluate factors associated with QoL and depressive symptoms, linear and adjusted regressions were used, with robust variance reporting coefficients (β).

Results

The percentage of participants most affected by QoL dimension was: anxiety/depression (47.2%) and pain/discomfort (35.6%). Regarding the Visual Analog Scale (EQ-VAS) of QoL, the score was 76.0 + 25.6. Those who had family economic decline during quarantine (β=-3.4, IC95%=-6.5 to −0.3) or family with chronic diseases (β=-3.7, IC95%=-6.1 to −1.4) presented significantly lower scores in their QoL. Regarding depressive symptomatology, the university students reported a moderate to severe level (28.9%). A higher risk of depressive symptoms was found in residents of Ayacucho (β=0.8, IC95%=0.1 to 1.5), those who were released from quarantine (β=0.7, IC95%=0.2 to 1.2) and those who had a family member with chronic disease (β=1.5, IC95%=1.0 to 2.1).

Conclusions

Almost half and one third of participants reported anxiety/depression, and pain/discomfort in their QoL respectively. Nearly a third presented moderate and severe depressive symptoms. The deterioration of QoL was worse in those who had a decrease in income and a family member with chronic illness. The presence of depressive symptoms was found in students in Ayacucho, those who left home during quarantine and those who had a family member with chronic diseases.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.12.04.411330: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Finally, the students who decided to participate in the study and entered the online survey were informed in detail and asked to accept the informed consent, to later conduct the survey.
    IRB: Ethical principles: This study was approved by the Institutional Committee on Research Ethics (CIEI) at Los Angeles Catholic University in Chimbote.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableThe covariates that participated in the study were: age (in tertiles), sex (male or female), department of residence (Ancash, Ayacucho, Lima and Piura), marital status (single/separate/widowed/divorced and married/cohabitant), occupation (studies and works, only work), left home during quarantine (no and yes), decreased family income in quarantine (no and yes), lives alone (no and yes) and family with chronic illness (no and yes).

    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:
    Strengths and limitations: The strength of our study lies in the fact that it is the first study to report updated evidence on the state of quality of life and mental health of university students in Peru after the Covid-19 pandemic confinement. However, the study has some limitations. Due to the COVID-19 confinement, the sampling used was non-probabilistic which reduces the representativeness of the population findings, however, we reached an important sample size in different departments of Peru, which produces consistent evidence from university students, in addition the results obtained are similar to other studies conducted (29,42). Likewise, the instrument used (EQ-5D-3L) to evaluate the quality of life was not validated in Peru, however, this instrument has been used in other studies and populations in Peru (21,22), in addition it was translated into Spanish by the EuroQol Group and has been adapted in other countries and languages (20).

    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:
    • No conflict of interest statement was detected. If there are no conflicts, we encourage authors to explicit state so.
    • No funding statement was detected.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.12.04.411330 on bioRxiv