Effect of a 12- year siege on the mental health among university students in the Gaza Strip

Background Since the siege was imposed on the Gaza strip, the humanitarian situation was deteriorated to reach unprecedented level of poverty, economic hardship and social problems. This affected the general mental health and quality of life of the population significantly. In this study, we aimed at assessing the impact of siege on the mental health among university students in the Gaza Strip. Method The study is a cross sectional study in which we have collected the data from 600 participants from four universities. We have collected demographic data, the impact of siege using Gaza Siege Checklist, and mental health status using the symptoms checklist. Data was entered, cleared and analyzed using SPSS version 23 to assess the relationship between the impact of siege and mental health. Results A total of 600 university students participated (mean age 20.5 ± 1.7 years; 54.4% female). Overall, the impact of the siege was substantial, with a mean impact score of 51.2% ± 21.8. The most frequently reported stressors were disruption of study due to electricity shortages (82.9%), difficulty traveling abroad for education (82.1%), and inability to pay university fees because of low family income (71.2%). Male students reported significantly higher siege impact scores than females (58.3% vs. 45.1%, p < 0.05). High prevalences of mental health symptoms were observed, including dysthymic (54.9%), depressive (51.1%), mistrust (53.3%), and sociophobic symptoms (44.4%). Agoraphobic symptoms were significantly higher among females than males (42.1% vs. 37.8%, p < 0.05). Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated significant positive associations between siege impact and all mental health domains, including depressive (r = 0.363), dysthymic (r = 0.173), vegetative (r = 0.201), agoraphobic (r = 0.155), sociophobic (r = 0.239), and mistrust symptoms (r = 0.331), with all correlations reaching statistical significance (p < 0.05). Conclusion It is concluded that the siege has impacted the mental health situation of the participants badly, as it raised the risk to develop several mental health problems including; depression, dysthymia, vegetation, agoraphobia, sociophobia, and mistrust.