DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND STRESS DURING PANDEMIC COVID-19 AMONG UNIVERSITY FIRST-YEAR STUDENT
Keywords:
Covid-19, depression, anxiety, stress, mental health, DASS-21Abstract
This study accesses the level of depression, anxiety, and stress during pandemic Covid-19 among the first-year student in Universiti Sains Malaysia and compared among the programs in the School of Health Science. A cross-sectional questionnaire was conducted with 178 first-year students aged between 18-29 years old. After providing informed consent, the participants completed a survey on socio-demographic variables along with the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire. A one-Way ANOVA test was performed to compare the significant difference in the level of depression, anxiety, and stress between different programs in PPSK. While, the significant difference in the level of depression, anxiety, and stress between students staying on campus and students staying outside campus was compared by using an independent t-Test. The prevalence rates of the extremely severe level of depression, anxiety, and stress of the first-year student during pandemic covid-19 were 14.0%, 32.0%, and 6.7% respectively. However, this study found there is no significant mean difference in depression, anxiety, and stress between different programs in Universiti Sains Malaysia. Students staying on campus perceived higher extremely severe depression (17.6%) and extremely severe anxiety (41.2%) as compared to students staying outside campus. This study found there is a significant mean difference for anxiety of students staying on campus as compared to students staying outside campus. So, it is recommended for further study to be done to investigate the contributing factors towards students' mental health so the university may be handled or avoided.
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