Mental health condition of college students compared to non-students during COVID-19 lockdown: the CONFINS study

  1. Julie Arsandaux
  2. Ilaria Montagni
  3. Mélissa Macalli
  4. Nathalie Texier
  5. Mathilde Pouriel
  6. Raphaël Germain
  7. Adel Mebarki
  8. Shérazade Kinouani
  9. Marie Tournier
  10. Stéphane Schuck
  11. Christophe Tzourio

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Abstract

To estimate the effect of student status on mental health condition during COVID-19 general lockdown in France.

Design

Cross-sectional analysis comparing students and non-students recruited in the same study.

Setting

Participants of the web-based CONFINS study implemented during the general lockdown in France in spring 2020.

Participants

2260 participants (78% women) including 1335 students (59%).

Primary and secondary outcome measures

Through an online questionnaire, participants declared if they have experienced suicidal thoughts, coded their perceived stress on a 10-points scale and completed validated mental health scales (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depressive symptoms, Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 for anxiety symptoms) during the last 7 days. The effect of college student status on each mental health condition was estimated using multivariate logistic regression analyses. Stratified models for students and non-students were performed to identify population-specific factors.

Results

Student status was associated with a higher frequency of depressive symptoms (adjusted OR (aOR)=1.58; 95% CI 1.17 to 2.14), anxiety symptoms (aOR=1.51; 95% CI 1.10 to 2.07), perceived stress (n=1919, aOR=1.70, 95% CI 1.26 to 2.29) and suicidal thoughts (n=1919, aOR=1.57, 95% CI 0.97 to 2.53). Lockdown conditions that could be potentially aggravating on mental health like isolation had a higher impact on students than on non-students.

Conclusions

College students were at higher risk of mental health disturbances during lockdown than non-students, even after taking into account several potential confounding factors. A close follow-up and monitoring of students’ mental health status is warranted during lockdown periods in this vulnerable population.

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  1. Version published to 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053231
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.04.20225706: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot 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:
    Strengths and limitations: The strengths of our study include the large sample, the standardised assessment tools used for mental health conditions and broad adjustment for other factors (related or not the Covid-19 pandemic or lockdown). This study profits recruitment of these two populations in the same cohort as well as similar data collection that allow direct comparison. Some limitations should however be taken into consideration. First, a sampling bias could have arisen since participants were volunteers, which could limit generalisation of the findings. Regarding mental health disturbances, the consequences appear however limited as frequencies were consistent with existing literature. Second, the cross-sectional design did not allow determining if lockdown impacted directly mental health or if there is another cause. However, we considered the history of psychiatric disorders that is an important confounder, and factors related to lockdown conditions were associated with mental health disturbances, suggesting that lockdown should have an impact on mental health especially for students. Longitudinal studies have been set up in the general population and have showed a deterioration of mental health during lockdown (Pierce et al., 2020). Similar studies are needed among students to establish clearly if lockdown can impact mental health in the short and in the long term. Implications: From a public health perspective, this study confirms that students were a vulnerable po...

    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

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.04.20225706v1 on medRxiv