The mental health of university students during and after the emergency announcement of Chiang Mai University amid the COVID-19 pandemic
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Abstract
Objective: The study aimed to assess the prevalence of mental health adverse outcomes including stress, depression, and suicide of Chiang Mai University (CMU) students during and after the emergency announcement amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted to collect two periods which were during (March 26th to August 2020) and after (November 2020 to January 2021) the emergency announcement of CMU amid the COVID-19 epidemic. Online questionnaires including the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the eight-question (8Q) assessment were used via the Survey Monkey™ Program. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Paired t-test, or Wilcoxon's signed rank test.
Results: The mental health scores of all 276 students, which compared ‘during’ and ‘after’ the emergency announcement, revealed that the mean PSS scores were 19.30±6.28 vs. 16.06±5.79 (p<0.001), median (IQR, min-max) scores of the PHQ-9, and 8Q scores were 8(7.5, 0-24) vs. 8(8, 0-24) (p=0.047), 0(0,0-33) vs. 0(0, 0-33) (p=0.109), respectively.
Conclusion: The stress and depression scores during the university emergency announcement for the COVID-19 epidemic were statistically significantly higher than the period after the announcement. Systematically assessing the students’ mental health is needed during emergency announcement circumstances such as the COVID-19 epidemic, and appropriate measures should be taken in a timely manner.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
บทความหลังผ่านการปรับแก้จากกองบรรณาธิการแล้ว เป็นลิขสิทธ์ของวารสารจิตเวชวิทยาสาร โรงพยาบาลสวนปรุง กรมสุขภาพจิต กระทรวงสาธารณสุข ห้ามเผยแพร่เพื่อประโยชน์ทางการค้าโดยไม่ได้รับอนุญาต แต่อนุญาตให้เผยแพร่บทความดังกล่าวเพื่อประโยชน์ทางการศึกษาแก่ประชาชนทั่วไป ทั้งนี้กองบรรณาธิการไม่จำเป็นต้องเห็นด้วยกับบทความหรือข้อคิดเห็นใดๆ ที่ปรากฏในวารสารสวนปรุง
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