Abstract
COVID-19 has been predicted to cause mental health deterioration among inhabitants around the globe including university students. This study was aimed at evaluating the perceived effect of COVID-19 on the mental health and social activity of healthcare students in southwestern Nigeria. A cross-sectional online survey method was used in the evaluation where an online questionnaire was distributed to the Whatsapp groups of undergraduate and post-graduate healthcare students from May to June 2020 using convenience sampling technique. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social sciences version 25 and results were presented using descriptive statistics which included mean, frequencies and percentages. Inferential statistics was done using the chi-square analysis. A total of 261 students consented to participate in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 23.77 + 3.85 years from various disciplines including pharmacy (31.4%), nursing (31%) and medicine (21.1%). Majority of the respondents (69.7%, 95%, 64.4% and 96.6%) had more than 50% perceived effect score showing considerable effect of COVID-19 on mental health, social life, safety and formal learning respectively. There was an association between gender and the perceived effect of COVID-19 on mental health and safety. There was no association between gender and perceived effect of COVID-19 on formal learning and social activity. COVID-19 has a considerable effect on mental health and social activity of healthcare students. There is a need for interventions to help reduce the effect of COVID-19 on mental health and encourage the use of online platforms to improve learning among college students.
License
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Type: Original Article
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 4, December 2020, Article No: em2015
https://doi.org/10.30935/ejmets/8569
Publication date: 07 Oct 2020
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