The Psychological Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Medical Undergraduates: A Study from BPKIHS, Dharan

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact that it can have on mental health has been consistently highlighted. Subsequently there have been calls for universities to monitor the mental health of their students considering the unique set of stressors faced by them. This study is an attempt to understand how our students are doing and to plan appropriate psychological interventions to help them

METHODOLOGY Online questionnaires of Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21) and Impact of Event Scale (IES) were distributed to the students currently pursuing MBBS and BDS in BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences.

RESULT 409 students responded to the questionnaires. The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among the respondents were 39.1%, 35.7% and 35.0% respectively. All three were more common in first and second year students and in those with past history of mental illness (p<0.05). 68.5% students were impacted by the pandemic with moderate to severe impact present in 33.2%. Students from first and second years were more impacted than others. (p<0.01).

CONCLUSION Students from our institute were suffering from considerable amount of distress. Those in early years of medical schooling and those with past history of mental illness were doing particularly worse than others. It is important that we give due importance to their mental health and develop interventions to help them.