Depression and anxiety among online learning students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a global need to explore the potential and challenges of online education. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the presence of depression and anxiety in university students and their level of satisfaction with online learning during the period of social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: A cross-sectional design was used to evaluate 152 online learning students from six different university courses: Medicine, Psychology, Law, Engineering, Physiotherapy, and Business. The evaluation of the participants was carried out through an online survey in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Also, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to assess participants mental health. RESULTS: Most of the participants reported emotional impact, followed by learning impact, financial impact, social impact, and technological impact, with a significant difference in the presence of depressive symptoms, but no significant difference in anxiety. The participants presented moderate anxiety levels, with no significant differences between genders, and mild levels of depressive symptoms with significant differences between genders. Also, younger students were more anxious than older students. In addition, female students with less social contact presented more depressive symtoms. CONCLUSION: From a clinical perspective, the findings provide insights into mental health among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings may help in the development of effective screening strategies and in the formulation of interventions that improve the mental health of students.