P001 Role of Stress Management on Perceived COVID-19 Health Risk Associated with Sleep (Quantity and Quality) of Undergraduate Business Students

INTRODUCTION: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, it has significantly caused disruptions in various aspects of daily life. In particular, students have been negatively affected by these changes due to unexpected alterations in educational modalities. Stress management can help students to adapt new normality easier and monitor their daily activities, which can reduce their COVID-19 risk while improving sleep quality for better health and academic performance. METHODS: For this pilot study, a Google form–based survey was distributed among 87 volunteer undergraduate business students from Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico. The survey was distributed during May 2021. The designed survey contains questionnaires related to perceived COVID-19 health risk, stress management, and sleep (quality and quantity). To test the mediating effects of stress management, we applied a mediation test using the “medmod” plugin of the Jamovi software. RESULTS: Analyzed results of the path estimate show that perceived health risk has a significant association with stress management (Estimate=.418, Z=5.58, p<.001), and stress management has a significant association with sleep (Estimate=.618, Z=5.18, p<.001). The value of mediation estimates calculated as =.618, Z=5.63, p<.001, 95% confidence intervals (LLCI=0.403 – ULCI=0.833). The analysis confirms that stress management mediates perceived COVID-19 health risk and sleep (quantity and quality) of undergraduate students. CONCLUSION: Based on the analyzed results of this pilot study, we conclude that stress management helps undergraduate students to accept and adopt new norms, cope with daily COVID-19 challenges, take greater preventive measures to decrease COVID-19 health risks, and improve the quantity and quality of sleep.