Informatics in Medicine Unlocked (Jan 2024)
Continuous measurement of university students stress level during COVID-19 lockdown: Longitudinal study
Abstract
Despite numerous studies documenting high stress levels among university students, few have explored the potential benefits of continuous and systematic monitoring of stress-related or other psychological data. The COVID-19 pandemic and policies such as lockdowns, online education, and other restrictions have made it necessary to explore the impact of these measures on students' stress levels. This study aims to describe our experience with collecting longitudinal stress data in a university setting and to investigate the impact of COVID-19 policies on students' stress levels.We employed a mixed-methods approach, collecting quantitative data using the Arabic-translated version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14) and qualitative data through interviews. Baseline PSS data collection began on October 20, 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, to assess students' stress levels during different academic timeframes, such as enrollment, midterm exams, and final exams. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a series of follow-up PSS collections was conducted from February 9, 2020, to November 15, 2021. After quantitative data collection ended, we conducted in-person interviews with 96 students, exploring domains such as health, academic life, sleep, diet, financial situation, living environments, work, social relationships, depression, and social thoughts.We received 404 responses with a nearly equal distribution of male and female participants. Our results revealed that female participants reported higher mean stress scores than male participants, while male participants had higher mean coping scores.Moreover, continuous and systematic monitoring of stress-related data can be valuable for coping with unpredictable events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The mixed-methods approach enabled us to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the complex impact of COVID-19 and lockdowns on students' stress levels. These results have important implications for developing interventions and support systems to help students manage stress during times of uncertainty and disruption.To improve health outcomes in both workplace and academic settings, we recommend integrating health-related measures. This could include the collection of diverse health-related data, such as psychological, psychometric, social, and behavioral information. Future studies should explore guidelines and standards to help organizations determine the most effective measures based on their unique environments and objectives.
