Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Students at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria

Introduction: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated the implementation of public health measures including social distancing, quarantine, and lockdown. Nigerian public universities have been closed since March 2020 after the viral outbreak. This study was carried out in order to investigate the psychological impact of COVID-19 on undergraduate students.

Methods: The study was carried out among students of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. Study participants were recruited by snowballing sampling technique and data collection was via online self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaire was adapted from the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R) to determine scores for depression, anxiety, stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Results: There were 322 participants with a median age of 22.4 (IQR = 20.5-24.2) years. Psychological impact was mild to moderate in 20.2%, and severe in 19.6%. Depression was mild to moderate in 19.3%, severe to extremely severe in 5.3%. Anxiety was mild to moderate in 10.3%, severe to extremely severe in 7.5%. Stress was mild to moderate in 16.4%, severe to extremely severe in 2.2%. Factors associated (p < 0.05) with increased levels of depression, anxiety, stress and PTSD include increase in time spent on social media, TV and movies, sleep duration, and decrease in physical activity.

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant changes for Nigerian university students. Two-fifth of them reported PTSD symptoms; one-fourth reported depression; about one-fifth reported anxiety and stress. Students need psychosocial support to help them cope with and to effectively adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic.