Prevalence and determinants of mental well-being and satisfaction with life among university students amidst COVID-19 pandemic

  1. Md. Safaet Hossain Sujan
  2. Atefehsadat Haghighathoseini
  3. Rafia Tasnim
  4. Rezaul Karim Ripon
  5. Sayem Ahmed Ripon
  6. Mohammad Mohiuddin Hasan
  7. Muhammad Ramiz Uddin
  8. Most. Zannatul Ferdous

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Abstract

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a slew of mental illnesses due to a lack of cures and vaccinations, as well as concerns about students’ well-being and satisfaction with life, resulting in psychological symptoms and dissatisfaction with their lives. As students are highly susceptible to mental health issues, researchers discovered that perceived SWL and MWB decreased. The present study investigated the prevalence and determinants of mental well-being and satisfaction with life among university students in Bangladesh.

Methods

An e-survey based cross-sectional study was carried out from February to April 2021 among 660 students. A purposive sampling technique was utilized in the study. Self-reported mental well-being and satisfaction with life psychological tools were also used. The e-questionnaire survey was conducted with informed consent and questions were related to socio-demographics, satisfaction with life, and mental well-being scales. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were performed. The data were rechecked and analyzed with the R programming language

Results

The prevalence estimates of mental well-being and satisfaction with life were 27% and 13%, respectively. In a total of 660 participants, 58.2% of them were male and the rest of them were female (41.8%). Among the participants, 22.5% suffer the worst conditions regarding their financial conditions, and 16.5% badly seek a job for livelihood.

Conclusion

The present findings revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic and longtime educational institution closure significantly affect the students mental health. Students’ mental well-being was in vulnerable conditions and their satisfaction with life was extremely poor. A comprehensive student psychological support service should be expanded to help students’ mental health.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.05.18.22275203: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: All participants provided informed consent after the purpose and objectives of the study were thoroughly explained to them.
    IRB: 2.7 Ethics: The present study was carried out in accordance with Institutional Research Ethics and the Helsinki Declaration.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power AnalysisIn the present study, the WEMWBS showed content reliability (Cronbach’s alpha =0.89) 2.5 Sampling procedure: The sample size was calculated using the following equation: The calculated sampling size was 384.

    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:
    Limitations: There are several limitations to the study that should be considered. The main limitation of this study is that participation in the study required access to a smartphone/computer, implying that respondents from the lower socioeconomic subgroup could not be included. Second, because this study relied on self-reported data, it was not completely free of recall or reporting bias. Third, because the study was conducted online using a convenience sampling technique, the possibility of selection bias should be considered. Finally, the study’s cross-sectional design includes method bias because a causal relationship cannot be accurately elucidated in this design. Future qualitative and longitudinal studies will be required to determine the true scenario in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    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.
    • Thank you for including a protocol registration statement.

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

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2022.05.18.22275203v1 on medRxiv