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Perceived stress and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: During extensive outbreaks of infectious diseases, people who are impacted, particularly the subgroups of the community who are at an increased risk of mental health problems, may experience increased stress and mental health difficulties. University students are one such susceptible pop...

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Autores principales: Simegn, Wudneh, Yohannes, Lamrot, Seid, Abdulwase Mohammed, Kasahun, Asmamaw Emagn, Sema, Faisel Dula, Flatie, Adane, Elias, Asrat, Dagne, Henok
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9670151/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36405123
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.978510
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author Simegn, Wudneh
Yohannes, Lamrot
Seid, Abdulwase Mohammed
Kasahun, Asmamaw Emagn
Sema, Faisel Dula
Flatie, Adane
Elias, Asrat
Dagne, Henok
author_facet Simegn, Wudneh
Yohannes, Lamrot
Seid, Abdulwase Mohammed
Kasahun, Asmamaw Emagn
Sema, Faisel Dula
Flatie, Adane
Elias, Asrat
Dagne, Henok
author_sort Simegn, Wudneh
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: During extensive outbreaks of infectious diseases, people who are impacted, particularly the subgroups of the community who are at an increased risk of mental health problems, may experience increased stress and mental health difficulties. University students are one such susceptible population and are prone to experiencing high levels of stress as compared with the general population. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing perceived stress and identifying its associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among university students in Ethiopia from 30 May to 30 June 2021. Students were asked to fill out an online survey on Google Forms that included consent, sociodemographic information, the UCLA-8 Loneliness Scale, the standard validated stress scale (PSS-10) questionnaire, and the three-item Oslo Social Support Scale (OSSS-3) to assess social support. The collected data were exported to SPSS 26. Descriptive and analytical statistics were carried out. Binary and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to find associated factors, and variables with a p-value of 0.05 were considered statistically significant variables. RESULTS: A total of 426 university students were included in the survey, among whom 268 (62.9%) were male participants. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 37 years. Health-related departments accounted for 37.1% of the participants, while non-health-related departments accounted for 62.9%. The prevalence of stress was 18.3% in the study population. In this study, extreme susceptibility to COVID-19, sleeping problems, poor self-efficacy to prevent COVID-19, and loneliness were significantly associated with perceived stress. CONCLUSION: Stress was prevalent among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Extreme susceptibility to COVID-19, sleeping problems, poor self-efficacy, and loneliness were identified as factors for stress. Therefore, we suggest that universities should provide opportunities for safe social connection, counseling, and guidance for students.
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spelling pubmed-96701512022-11-18 Perceived stress and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study Simegn, Wudneh Yohannes, Lamrot Seid, Abdulwase Mohammed Kasahun, Asmamaw Emagn Sema, Faisel Dula Flatie, Adane Elias, Asrat Dagne, Henok Front Psychol Psychology BACKGROUND: During extensive outbreaks of infectious diseases, people who are impacted, particularly the subgroups of the community who are at an increased risk of mental health problems, may experience increased stress and mental health difficulties. University students are one such susceptible population and are prone to experiencing high levels of stress as compared with the general population. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing perceived stress and identifying its associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among university students in Ethiopia from 30 May to 30 June 2021. Students were asked to fill out an online survey on Google Forms that included consent, sociodemographic information, the UCLA-8 Loneliness Scale, the standard validated stress scale (PSS-10) questionnaire, and the three-item Oslo Social Support Scale (OSSS-3) to assess social support. The collected data were exported to SPSS 26. Descriptive and analytical statistics were carried out. Binary and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to find associated factors, and variables with a p-value of 0.05 were considered statistically significant variables. RESULTS: A total of 426 university students were included in the survey, among whom 268 (62.9%) were male participants. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 37 years. Health-related departments accounted for 37.1% of the participants, while non-health-related departments accounted for 62.9%. The prevalence of stress was 18.3% in the study population. In this study, extreme susceptibility to COVID-19, sleeping problems, poor self-efficacy to prevent COVID-19, and loneliness were significantly associated with perceived stress. CONCLUSION: Stress was prevalent among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Extreme susceptibility to COVID-19, sleeping problems, poor self-efficacy, and loneliness were identified as factors for stress. Therefore, we suggest that universities should provide opportunities for safe social connection, counseling, and guidance for students. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9670151/ /pubmed/36405123 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.978510 Text en Copyright © 2022 Simegn, Yohannes, Seid, Kasahun, Sema, Flatie, Elias and Dagne. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Simegn, Wudneh
Yohannes, Lamrot
Seid, Abdulwase Mohammed
Kasahun, Asmamaw Emagn
Sema, Faisel Dula
Flatie, Adane
Elias, Asrat
Dagne, Henok
Perceived stress and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study
title Perceived stress and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study
title_full Perceived stress and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Perceived stress and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Perceived stress and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study
title_short Perceived stress and associated factors among university students in Ethiopia during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study
title_sort perceived stress and associated factors among university students in ethiopia during the late stage of the covid-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9670151/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36405123
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.978510
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