Assessment of Mental Health and Quality of Life Status of Undergraduate Students in Indonesia during COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-Sectional Study

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 22;19(19):12011. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191912011.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic globally impacted physical, spiritual, and mental health (MH). The consequences significantly affected students' quality of life (QoL) too. This cross-sectional study assessed MH status and its relationship to the QoL of college students in Indonesia. This study collected data (September 2021-April 2022) online using the depression, anxiety, and stress scale-21 (DASS-21) to measure MH and the world health organization quality-of-life scale (WHOQoL-BREF) to measure the QoL. The data were analysed using SPSS with a bivariate and multivariate linear regression test. A total of 606 respondents participated in this study, with the majority being women (81.0%), aged 21-27 years (44.3%), and unmarried (98.5%) respondents. We observed 24.4% (n = 148) moderate depression, 18.3% (n = 111) very severe anxiety, and 21.1% (n = 128) moderate stress status. The QoL measurement determined that a moderate QoL in the physical and environmental health domains (>70%) and poor QoL in the psychological health domain (58.3%) were found. Gender, age, family support, history of COVID-19 diagnosis, family with COVID-19 diagnosis, vaccination status, and physical symptoms are significantly associated with MH status and QoL (p-value < 0.05). This study demonstrated that COVID-19 was negatively related to college students' MH and QoL. Targeted interventions may be needed to ameliorate both MH and QoL.

Keywords: DASS-21; WHOQOL-BREF; environmental health; mental health; psychological health; quality of life.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19 Testing
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Disease Outbreaks
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Indonesia / epidemiology
  • Male
  • Mental Health
  • Pandemics
  • Quality of Life* / psychology
  • Students / psychology
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia, grant number: 46/FF/A.3-III/II/2021.