Social isolation and psychological distress among southern US college students in the era of COVID-19

  1. Danielle Giovenco
  2. Bonnie E Shook-Sa
  3. Bryant Hutson
  4. Laurie Buchanan
  5. Edwin B Fisher
  6. Audrey Pettifor

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Abstract

Objective

To examine the prevalence of psychological distress and its association with social isolation among University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) students.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was emailed to all students in June 2020. Students reported self-isolating none, some, most, or all of the time and were screened for clinically significant symptoms of depression (CSSD). Data were weighted to the UNC-CH population.

Results

7,012 students completed surveys-64% reported self-isolating most or all of the time and 64% reported CSSD. Compared to those self-isolating none of the time, students self-isolating some of the time were 1.78 (95% CI 1.37-2.30) times as likely to report CSSD, and students self-isolating most and all of the time were 2.12 (95% CI 1.64-2.74) and 2.27 (95% CI 1.75-2.94) times as likely to report CSSD, respectively.

Conclusions

Universities should prioritize student mental health and prepare support services to mitigate mental health consequences of the pandemic.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.12.31.21268596: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: Prior to starting the survey, students interested in participating followed a link to read and sign an informed consent.
    IRB: The Institutional Review Board of the UNC-CH Office of Human Research Ethics approved study procedures.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot 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:
    There are several limitations of this research. First, this study used weighting to make inferences about the UNC-CH student population; findings, however, may not be generalizable to US college students more broadly. Second, we utilized clinically validated screening instruments to assess symptoms of mental health disorders and psychological distress; diagnostic evaluations were not conducted. Next, the survey administration coincided with protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement across the United States. This may have impacted student responses and confounded our analysis given that Black/African American students reported a slightly higher prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms (67%). Lastly, although weighting methods were used to adjust for nonresponse, their effectiveness is limited if there are differences between survey respondents and non-respondents on study variables not accounted for by the weighting.

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    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 10.1101/2021.12.31.21268596v1 on medRxiv