Biography:

Abstract:

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19, caused by SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in a worldwide public health crisis. During the lockdown, students faced an abrupt transition to remote learning that significantly disrupted their routines, likely causing changes in mental health. The aimed study was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 lockdown and remote learning on the academic and psycho-social mental health of students who were initially most affected. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study, conducted on university students of Tirana, Elbasan, and Shkodra between November 2020 and March 2021. In total, 438 questionnaires were collected. The SPSS version 20.0 was used to analyze the data.

The average age resulted in 21.7 years ± 2.4StD with min age of 18 years old and a max of 26 years old. Students were mostly females (82%), with a significant association with males. Almost half of them were at the Master’s level (50.9%) and the others at the Bachelor’s level (49.1%). About 74% live in the hostel or are displaced from their family environment and 40.6% were scholarship holders. The problem with mental health appeared in 28.5% of students. Lockdown, COVID-19 infection and academic and economic situations were accompanied by fear, stress, and anxiety. Higher scores were found in fear and stress, and there were the most predominant mental health problems among students (P < 0.01).

The finding of this study indicated that students’ mental health was severely affected by COVID-19. Being a young female living in the hostel and having scholarships seems to increase susceptibility to mental health during the pandemic. Fear about COVID-19 infection for themselves and their families, stress for lower grades, online teaching, living conditions, and loneliness or missing close contact with friends emerged as correlates of deteriorating mental health. Stakeholders and Universities especially the psychologist staff should develop strategies that promote students’ mental health.