Mental health, learning behaviour and perceived fatigue among university students during the COVID-19 outbreak: a cross-sectional multicentric study in the UAE

BACKGROUND: The rapid shift to online education due to COVID-19 quarantine challenged students’ ability to accept pure online learning without negative consequences for their physical, emotional and mental health. Some educational institutions introduced new strategies to reduce the psychosocial burden associated with online learning during home confinement. Thus, the primary aims were to determine the consequences of COVID-19 for the psychological well-being and fatigue levels of higher education students and to explore the effects of a new academic assessment approach in reducing home confinement stress. METHOD: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among students, from 30 August to 30 September 2020, of 7 disciplines in all 16 higher colleges of technology in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Mental Well-being and Learning Behaviours Scale and the modified Copenhagen Burnout Inventory were used to evaluate students’ psychological well-being and fatigue levels. A Welch t-test and Welch ANOVA were performed to determine the differences in perceived psychological well-being associated with students’ characteristics. Second, Kruskal_Wallis and Mann_Whitney were performed to determine the differences in fatigue level based on students’ characteristics. RESULTS: One thousand four hundred students participated. The majority were female (78.5%) and aged from 21–25 years (58.1%). Around 14% of respondents were married with children. Nearly 40% were satisfied with the new assessment approach introduced during the COVID pandemic and 45.5% perceived it as having reduced their home confinement stress. The mean psychological distress score of 3.00 (SD ± 0.71) indicates a moderate impact of COVID-19 on psychological well-being. Students’ psychological distress was positively correlated with fatigue level (0.256, p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with the perceived impact of the new assessment approach on student lifestyle (− 0.133, p < 0.001), physical health (− 0.149, p < 0.001) and coping with stress (− 0.125, p < 0.001). Male students experienced significantly lower fatigue and better psychological well-being than female students. CONCLUSION: The study reveals that new assessment approaches which emerged during home confinement reduced students’ perception of stress and of impaired lifestyle. However, students still had a considerable burden of psychological distress, requiring further preventive measures to maintain their psychological well-being during future outbreak events. Educational institutions should consider additional strategies to improve students’ preparedness for online teaching, which could help maintain their psychological well-being.