Sociodemographic determinants of depression, anxiety, and stress immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study among university students in Saudi Arabia

Ibrahim Alasqah; Abdullah Alhamdan; Mohammad Alhouri; Mohammed Alfehaid

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1271536

Sociodemographic determinants of depression, anxiety, and stress immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study among university students in Saudi Arabia

Front Public Health. 2024 Jan 8:11:1271536. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1271536. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ibrahim Alasqah^{1

2}, Abdullah Alhamdan¹, Mohammad Alhouri¹, Mohammed Alfehaid¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, Qassim University, Al Bukairiyah, Saudi Arabia.
² School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

Background: The public health measures taken in educational institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic had complex influences on students' mental health. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and sociodemographic determinants of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic among students at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among Qassim University students in Saudi Arabia. All students registered for the academic year 2022 were invited to participate in a survey through social media. A total of 453 participants completed an online survey that included the DASS-21 for assessing the emotional states of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress..

Results: The mean scores for Depression, Anxiety, and Stress, were 10.70, 11.18, and 10.40, respectively. At least 18% of the students reported experiencing moderate-to-severe levels of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress. The study showed that the feminine gender was associated with higher Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scores.

Conclusion: Students in the current study described experiencing higher levels of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of the present study can help universities take targeted measures to address the impact of a pandemic like COVID-19 on students' mental health.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Saudi Arabia; anxiety; depression; mental health; stress; students.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anxiety / epidemiology
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression / epidemiology
Humans
Pandemics*
Saudi Arabia / epidemiology
Students
Universities

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors gratefully acknowledge Qassim University, represented by the Deanship of “Scientific Research, on the financial support for this research under the number (PHSC-2022-1-1-J28357) during the academic year 1444 AH/2022AD.”