Associations between depression, fear of COVID-19 infection and students' self-care measures used during the first wave of the pandemic

Passent Ellakany; Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan; Maha El Tantawi; Roberto Ariel Abeldaño Zuñiga; Nourhan M Aly; Eshrat Ara; Balgis Gaffar; Anthonia Omotola Ishabiyi; Mir Faeq Ali Quadri; Abeedah Tu-Allah Khan; Zumama Khalid; Folake Barakat Lawal; Bamidele Olubukola Popoola; Joanne Lusher; Muhammad Abrar Yousaf; Jorma I Virtanen; Annie Lu Nguyen; Mental Health and Wellness study group

doi:10.1186/s12889-023-15954-8

Associations between depression, fear of COVID-19 infection and students' self-care measures used during the first wave of the pandemic

BMC Public Health. 2023 Jun 1;23(1):1047. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-15954-8.

Authors

Passent Ellakany¹, Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan², Maha El Tantawi³, Roberto Ariel Abeldaño Zuñiga⁴, Nourhan M Aly³, Eshrat Ara⁵, Balgis Gaffar⁶, Anthonia Omotola Ishabiyi⁷, Mir Faeq Ali Quadri⁸, Abeedah Tu-Allah Khan⁹, Zumama Khalid⁹, Folake Barakat Lawal¹⁰, Bamidele Olubukola Popoola¹¹, Joanne Lusher¹², Muhammad Abrar Yousaf¹³, Jorma I Virtanen¹⁴, Annie Lu Nguyen¹⁵; Mental Health and Wellness study group

Affiliations

¹ Department of Substitutive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia. pellakany@iau.edu.sa.
² Department of Child Dental Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
³ Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health, Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
⁴ Postgraduate Department, University of Sierra Sur, Oaxaca, Mexico.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Government College for Women, Cluster University of Srinagar, Moulana Azad Road Srinagar Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, 190001, India.
⁶ Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Sociology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
⁸ Department of Oral Health Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁹ School of Biological Sciences, University of the Punjab, New Campus, Lahore, 54590, Pakistan.
¹⁰ Department of Periodontology and Community Dentistry, College of Medicine, University of Ibdan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
¹¹ Department of Child Oral Health, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
¹² Regent's University London, London, UK.
¹³ Department of Biology, Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore, Pakistan.
¹⁴ Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
¹⁵ Department of Family Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 lockdown resulted in the closure of schools with associated problems. The aim of this study was to determine the associations between depression, fear of contracting COVID-19 infection and the use of self-care measures by college students during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that collected data from undergraduate and postgraduate college students 18 years and older from 152 countries between June and December 2020. Study participants were recruited through crowdsourcing using various social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, WhatsApp groups and emails to participants in the collaborators' networks. The dependent variables were fear of contracting COVID-19 and depression while the independent variable was students' self-care measures. Multivariable logistic regression models were conducted to assess the associations between the dependent and independent variables.

Results: Of the 2840 respondents, 1305 (46.0%) had fears of contracting COVID-19 and 599 (21.1%) reported depression. The most common self-care measures were phone calls with friends/family (60.1%) and video chat (52.8%). Learning a new skill was significantly associated with higher odds of fear of contracting COVID-19 (AOR = 1.669) and lower odds of having depression (AOR = 0.684). Talking to friends/family through video chat (AOR = 0.809) was significantly associated with lower odds of feeling depressed while spending time with pets (AOR = 1.470) and taking breaks from the news/social media (AOR = 1.242) were significantly associated with higher odds of feeling depressed. Students from lower middle-income countries (AOR = 0.330) had significantly lower odds of feeling depressed than students from low-income countries.

Conclusion: Self-care strategies involving social interactions were associated with less depression. Coping strategies with more cognitive demands may significantly reduce the risk of fear of COVID-19. Special attention needs to be given to students in low-income countries who have higher odds of depression during the pandemic than students from other countries.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coping; Depression; Fear of COVID-19; Self-care; Students.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Communicable Disease Control
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression / epidemiology
Fear
Humans
Pandemics*
Self Care
Students

Grants and funding

K01 AG064986/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States