Anxiety, depression, and stress prevalence among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Background: Since the end of 2019, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak rapidly became a pandemic. The psychological state of people during the COVID-19 pandemic has gained interest. Our aim was to study the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A systematic search of Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library was conducted up to September 20, 2020. Reviewers independently assessed full-text articles according to predefined criteria. Stata14/SE was used to calculate the prevalence and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of anxiety, depression, and stress among college students from different countries. A random effects model was adopted. The Egger test was used to determine publication bias. Results: A total of 280 references were retrieved, and 28 papers met our inclusion criteria, for a total of 436,799 college students. Thirteen studies involved non-Chinese college students, and 15 studies involved Chinese college students. The prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress was 29% (95% CI, 19–25%), 37% (95% CI, 32–42%), and 23% (95% CI, 8–39%), respectively. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative psychological effect on college students, and the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress among Chinese college students is lower than among non-Chinese college students.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• anxiety
• depression
• stress
• college student
• meta-analysis

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the medical staff fighting COVID-19 at the front line.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. All listed authors contributed to the planning, performing, and reporting of this work.

The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of China and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of the Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University.

Additional information

Funding

The present study was supported by the Hangzhou Science and Technology Bureau Fund (Nos. 20191203B96, 20191203B105 and 20171334M01), the Youth Fund of the Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences (No. 2019Y009); the Zhejiang Medicine and Health Technology Project (No. 2020KY716); and the Hangzhou Health Science and Family Planning Science and Technology Program Key Projects (No. 2017ZD02).