Depression and anxiety among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: A web-based cross-sectional survey

PLoS One. 2020 Aug 26;15(8):e0238162. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238162. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of depression and anxiety among Bangladeshi university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also aimed at identifying the determinants of depression and anxiety. A total of 476 university students living in Bangladesh participated in this cross-sectional web-based survey. A standardized e-questionnaire was generated using the Google Form, and the link was shared through social media-Facebook. The information was analyzed in three consecutive levels, such as univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis. Students were experiencing heightened depression and anxiety. Around 15% of the students reportedly had moderately severe depression, whereas 18.1% were severely suffering from anxiety. The binary logistic regression suggests that older students have greater depression (OR = 2.886, 95% CI = 0.961-8.669). It is also evident that students who provided private tuition in the pre-pandemic period had depression (OR = 1.199, 95% CI = 0.736-1.952). It is expected that both the government and universities could work together to fix the academic delays and financial problems to reduce depression and anxiety among university students.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Anxiety / epidemiology*
  • Bangladesh / epidemiology
  • COVID-19
  • Communicable Disease Control*
  • Coronavirus Infections / epidemiology
  • Coronavirus Infections / prevention & control*
  • Coronavirus Infections / psychology*
  • Depression / epidemiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Logistic Models
  • Male
  • Pandemics / prevention & control*
  • Pneumonia, Viral / epidemiology
  • Pneumonia, Viral / prevention & control*
  • Pneumonia, Viral / psychology*
  • Students / psychology*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Universities
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.