COVID-19 pandemic effects on the mental health of an academic community

Transversal study carried out with 586 individuals from the academic community from the Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre. We elaborated an online multiple-choice questionnaire hosted in the RedCap platform. We elaborated the questionnaire based on a guide content, which addresses the main considerations of mental health during the pandemic. Aspects of mental health, such as anguish, irritability, among others, were the outcome evaluated. We carried out the statistical analysis in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software and the association between variables was evaluated through the Chi-square test and the student T-test. The significance level adopted was 5%.

Results:

586 individuals participated: 81% women, 72,8% Exploratory, transversal, and quantitative study, where the scenario was the Universidade Federal de Ciência da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA), located in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The transversal study is characterized by the direct observation of a sample of individuals in a single moment, 58,2% with per capita income of minimum 5 salaries, and 90,3% white. The most prevalent feelings were: Impotence (93,5%), anguish (90,8%), fear of losing relatives, friends or familiars (90,1%), irritability (85,3%) and sadness (89,9%). We found that female sex is a factor of risk to present most of the feelings, except irritability and boredom.

Conclusion:

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health of the academic community, reinforcing the necessity of establishing psychological intervention protocols in the pandemic. We found a significant statistical difference between the sexes, in which the psychological effects are more severe in the female sex.

Keywords
Mental health; Coronavirus; Coronavirus infections; COVID-19; Universities

Variables		Men	Women	Total
		(n=110)	(n=476)	(n=586)
		n(%)	n(%)	n(%)
Race
	White	94(85,5)	435(91,4)	529(90,3)
	Non-white	16(14,5)	41(8,6)	57(9,7)
Educational level
	Complete high school	13(11,8)	31(6,5)	44(7,5)
	Incomplete higher education	51(46,4)	260(54,6)	311(53,1)
	Complete higher education	46(41,8)	185(38,9)	231(39,4)
Marital status
	Not married	82(74,5)	365(76,7)	447(76,3)
	Married	28(25,5)	111(23,3)	139(23,7)
Occupation at UFCSPA
	Undergraduate and postgraduate student	70(63,0)	355(74,9)	425(72,8)
	Scholarship holder and trainee	1(0,9)	6(1,3)	7(1,2)
	Administrative technician	12(10,9)	29(6,1)	41(7)
	Faculty member	27(24,5)	84(17,7)	111(19)
Per capita income
	Untill 5 minimum wages per month	60(54,5)	281(59)	341(58,2)
	5 to 10 minimum wages per month	30(27,3)	121(25,4)	151(25,8)
	10 or more minimum wages per month	20(18,2)	74(15,5)	94(16)
Religion
	Religious	54(49,1)	282(59,2)	336(57,3)
	Non-religious	56(50,9)	194(40,8)	250(42,7)

Variabel	Prevalence ratio	Confidence interval 95%	p-value
Fear of dying ^* * Adjusted analysis for gender, age, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capta income.
Female gender	1,21	1,007-1,248	=0,03
Fear of losing relatives, friends or acquaintancess ^* ***** Adjusted analysis for gender, age, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capita income, recurrent thoughts about the health of family, friends and acquaintances
Recurrent thoughts about the health of family members, friends and acquaintances	1,34	1,215-1,478	<0,001
Female gender	1,09	1,005-1,183	=0,03
Undergraduate student	0,93	0,89-0,97	=0,003
Impotence ^* * Adjusted analysis for gender, age, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capta income.
Faculty member	0,87	0,783-0,983	=0,02
Undergraduate student	0,94	0,907-0,983	=0,006
Female gender	1,11	1,033-1,2	=0,005
Irritability ^ Adjusted analysis for gender, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capita income, violent thoughts related to other people and increase of interpersonal conflicts.
White	1,11	1,002-1,250	=0,04
Violent thoughts regarding other people	1,11	1,050-1,179	<0,001
Increase of interpersonal conflicts	1,09	1,026-1,163	=0,005
Anguish ^* * Adjusted analysis for gender, age, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capta income.
Female gender	1,14	1,057-1,250	<0,001
Undergraduate student	0,92	0,87-0,978	0,007
Increase of age	0,99	0,994-0,998	0,007
Sadness ^* * Adjusted analysis for gender, age, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capta income.
Female gender	1,20	1,099-1,310	<0,001
Increase of age	0,996	0,991-1,000	=0,06
Helplessness ^* * Adjusted analysis for gender, age, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capta income.
Female gender	1,31	1,189-1,463	<0,001
Not married	1,14	1,016-1,282	=0,02
White	0,86	0,749-0,995	=0,04
Religious	0,92	0,846-1,004	=0,06
Loneliness ^* * Adjusted analysis for gender, age, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capta income.
Female gender	1,14	1,031-1,266	=0,01
Not married	1,19	1,073-1,328	=0,01
Boredom ^* * Adjusted analysis for gender, age, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capta income.
Increase of age	0,98	0,982-0,993	<0,001
Despair ^* * Adjusted analysis for gender, age, religion, occupation, color, marital status, per capta income.
Female	1,12	1,075-1,342	=0,001
Religious	0,89	0,822-0,967	=0,006

Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Paulo R. Napoleão de Barros, 754, 04024-002 São Paulo - SP/Brasil, Tel./Fax: (55 11) 5576 4430 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: actapaulista@unifesp.br

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[1] Corresponding author Lahanna da Silva Ribeiro, E-mail: lahannas@gmail.com