Depression and anxiety among the University community during the Covid-19 pandemic: a study in Southern Brazil

  1. Helena S. Schuch
  2. Mariana G. Cademartori
  3. Valesca Doro Dias
  4. Mateus L. Levandowski
  5. Tiago N Munhoz
  6. Pedro R. C. Hallal
  7. Flávio F. Demarco

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Discuss this preprint

Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people’s routine in several ways, including the temporary cessation of face-to-face teaching activities, which may affect the mental health of the population. This study aimed to assess the mental health of the academic community of a University in South Brazil during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Methods

Cross-sectional web-based survey conducted between July-August 2020 through a self-administered online questionnaire. All University staff and students were eligible. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and anxiety by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7. All analyses were stratified by academic or administrative staff, undergraduate and graduate students.

Results

2,785 individuals participated in the study. Prevalence of depression and anxiety were 39.2% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 37.3-41.1) and 52.5% (95% CI 50.6-54.4), respectively. On stratified analyses, undergraduate students showed a higher prevalence of the outcomes compared to other groups. In relation to social distancing, higher prevalence of mental illness was associated to strictly following the authority’s guidelines and with not leaving the house routinely, but these associations were restricted to some subgroups. Mental health care and previous diagnosis of mental illness were associated with higher rates of anxiety and depression.

Limitations

The main concerns were the representativeness of the sample and the response rate.

Conclusions

An alarming prevalence of mental illness was observed in this academic community. Despite the well-known benefits of social distancing and quarantine to public health, it requires a special surveillance on the mental health of the population, especially students and those with previous mental illness diagnosis.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.12.21255340: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: The first page of the questionnaire contained an informed consent form.
    IRB: This cross-sectional study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Pelotas under Protocol number 4.103.085.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Covariates: Gender, age group (number of years, stratified as 18-21, 22-24, 25-30, 31-41; and ≥42), skin color according to the Brazilian Census (White, Black, Mixed, East Asian, Indigenous), and family income (categorized into quintiles) were the socioeconomic and demographic variables collected.
    Covariates: Gender
    suggested: None

    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:
    In addition, the response rate was relatively low, which can also reflect the limitations of online self-administered questionnaires. Also, the rates of full completion of online questionnaires are lower for web-based interviews that the figures for face-to-face data collections (Heiervang and Goodman, 2011). Another point worth mention is that individuals with more severe mental health issues may be less likely to engage in web-based surveys, leading to underestimated prevalence of these problems. Finally, the cross-sectional nature of our data limits the evaluation of temporality or the mental health monitoring over different moments of the pandemic. Also, it is worth mentioning that the questionnaire was applied when the online activities had just started. Academic activities were suspended on March 16th, and students and academic staff had more than 3 months without in person or online teaching process., while the University was moving to the remote teaching. This scenario could increase the risk for depression and anxiety symptoms or loneliness among University students (Sundarasen et al., 2020). In conclusion, COVID-19 is a global pandemic that may shape the mental health of a whole generation. The overall levels of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic are alarming, and the levels among University students are specially concerning. Individuals with previous medical diagnosis of mental illness and those practicing social isolation appear to have higher pre...

    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.

    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 10.1101/2021.04.12.21255340 on medRxiv