Perception of mental health in higher education students: changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic

• Autor(a) principal: Minghelli, Beatriz
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Martins, Beatriz, Pereira, Carlos, Bento, Joana, Nogueira, Leonor, Coelho, Mariana, Pargana, Mariana, Borges, Miriam, Sousa, Rafaela, Calado, Tatiana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/16176
• topic: Mental health; COVID-19; Confinement; University students; Physical exercise; Feeding; Saúde mental; Confinamento; Estudantes universitários; Exercício físico; Alimentação

ABSTRACT - The actual pandemic context took several changes in the routine of higher education students, including interruptions of face-to-face classes, implementation of education at a distance, interruption or delayed phases, and others, which could compromise mental health. This study aimed to assess the perception of mental health among higher education students in times of the pandemic COVID-19 and associated factors. The sample was constituted of 1,004 higher education students, aged 18 to 51 years (20.33±3.35), 725 (72.2%) female. The instrument includes a questionnaire, elaborated by the researchers, divided into four parts: characterization social-demographic, physical exercise practice, feeding, and mental health. Before the confinement, 99 (9.9%) students classify their mental health as poor and during the confinement 423 (42.2%) said that their mental health was poor (p≤0.001). Women presented 1.91 (CI=1.42-2.56; p≤0.001) more probabilities of having poor mental health and the students that did not practice physical exercise during the confinement had 1.56 (CI=1.22-2.04; p≤0.001) more chances of having poor mental health. Most students classified their mental health as inferior during confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with women and the lack of physical exercise being the factors that were most related to poor mental health.