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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and physical health and overall wellbeing of university students in Portugal

Throughout the pandemic of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, university students were considered a vulnerable risk group for mental health impairment and wellbeing deterioration. This study aimed at evaluating the pandemic’s impact on the physical and mental health and wellbeing among students of a Por...

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Autores principales: Machado, Barbara Cesar, Pinto, Elisabete, Silva, Margarida, Veiga, Elisa, Sá, Cristina, Kuhz, Sahra, Silva, Patrícia Oliveira, Pimenta, Ana, Gomes, Ana, Almeida, Armando, Sá, Luis, Correia, Marta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10159150/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37141328
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285317
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author Machado, Barbara Cesar
Pinto, Elisabete
Silva, Margarida
Veiga, Elisa
Sá, Cristina
Kuhz, Sahra
Silva, Patrícia Oliveira
Pimenta, Ana
Gomes, Ana
Almeida, Armando
Sá, Luis
Correia, Marta
author_facet Machado, Barbara Cesar
Pinto, Elisabete
Silva, Margarida
Veiga, Elisa
Sá, Cristina
Kuhz, Sahra
Silva, Patrícia Oliveira
Pimenta, Ana
Gomes, Ana
Almeida, Armando
Sá, Luis
Correia, Marta
author_sort Machado, Barbara Cesar
collection PubMed
description Throughout the pandemic of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, university students were considered a vulnerable risk group for mental health impairment and wellbeing deterioration. This study aimed at evaluating the pandemic’s impact on the physical and mental health and wellbeing among students of a Portuguese university. This cross-sectional study included 913 participants and ran from June to October 2020. Data collected included sociodemographics, three mental health self-report questionnaires (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire and Brief COPE) and lifestyle practices (eating and sleeping patterns, media, and entertainment habits) during the first months of the pandemic, which included a 72-day full national lockdown. Descriptive and correlational statistical analysis were conducted. Students’ food habits changed during the pandemic, namely on the consumption of snacks and fast food and, overall, less balanced meals became more prevalent. Additionally, almost 70% of the students reported Body Mass Index changes, while 59% went through sleep pattern changes–these were more pronounced in women and younger students. Over half (67%) of the inquirees exhibited an increase in their stress, depression, and generalized anxiety symptoms. Also, the study demonstrates that students’ lifestyles trended negatively during the pandemic and highlights how important regular psychological, health monitoring and emotional support is, amongst this somehow overlooked population throughout the pandemic. Universities should provide support to overcome challenges in future stressful situations. This study might have an impact on how universities and higher education systems approach their students in terms of mental and physical health monitoring and promotion in future situations, non-related with COVID. Moreover, it has a large sample of students well characterized in terms of mental and physical health, which might be of interest for future comparison with other worldwide group of students throughout stressful situations, such as tragic events, wars, pandemics.
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spelling pubmed-101591502023-05-05 Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and physical health and overall wellbeing of university students in Portugal Machado, Barbara Cesar Pinto, Elisabete Silva, Margarida Veiga, Elisa Sá, Cristina Kuhz, Sahra Silva, Patrícia Oliveira Pimenta, Ana Gomes, Ana Almeida, Armando Sá, Luis Correia, Marta PLoS One Research Article Throughout the pandemic of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, university students were considered a vulnerable risk group for mental health impairment and wellbeing deterioration. This study aimed at evaluating the pandemic’s impact on the physical and mental health and wellbeing among students of a Portuguese university. This cross-sectional study included 913 participants and ran from June to October 2020. Data collected included sociodemographics, three mental health self-report questionnaires (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire and Brief COPE) and lifestyle practices (eating and sleeping patterns, media, and entertainment habits) during the first months of the pandemic, which included a 72-day full national lockdown. Descriptive and correlational statistical analysis were conducted. Students’ food habits changed during the pandemic, namely on the consumption of snacks and fast food and, overall, less balanced meals became more prevalent. Additionally, almost 70% of the students reported Body Mass Index changes, while 59% went through sleep pattern changes–these were more pronounced in women and younger students. Over half (67%) of the inquirees exhibited an increase in their stress, depression, and generalized anxiety symptoms. Also, the study demonstrates that students’ lifestyles trended negatively during the pandemic and highlights how important regular psychological, health monitoring and emotional support is, amongst this somehow overlooked population throughout the pandemic. Universities should provide support to overcome challenges in future stressful situations. This study might have an impact on how universities and higher education systems approach their students in terms of mental and physical health monitoring and promotion in future situations, non-related with COVID. Moreover, it has a large sample of students well characterized in terms of mental and physical health, which might be of interest for future comparison with other worldwide group of students throughout stressful situations, such as tragic events, wars, pandemics. Public Library of Science 2023-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC10159150/ /pubmed/37141328 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285317 Text en © 2023 Machado et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Machado, Barbara Cesar
Pinto, Elisabete
Silva, Margarida
Veiga, Elisa
Sá, Cristina
Kuhz, Sahra
Silva, Patrícia Oliveira
Pimenta, Ana
Gomes, Ana
Almeida, Armando
Sá, Luis
Correia, Marta
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and physical health and overall wellbeing of university students in Portugal
title Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and physical health and overall wellbeing of university students in Portugal
title_full Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and physical health and overall wellbeing of university students in Portugal
title_fullStr Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and physical health and overall wellbeing of university students in Portugal
title_full_unstemmed Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and physical health and overall wellbeing of university students in Portugal
title_short Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental and physical health and overall wellbeing of university students in Portugal
title_sort impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the mental and physical health and overall wellbeing of university students in portugal
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10159150/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37141328
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285317
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