Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH), New York, NY, USA.
City University of New York Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health, New York, NY, USA.
J Urban Health. 2021 Apr;98(2):187-196. doi: 10.1007/s11524-020-00506-x. Epub 2021 Feb 11.
Understanding the effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on students' health and financial stability is important to establish effective interventions to mitigate these effects, which may have long-term consequences on their health and well-being. Public universities in urban centers represent a substantial proportion of college students in the USA. We implemented a cross-sectional population-based online survey of 2282 students in a large, public university in New York City in April 2020. We created weights to account for non-response and used Poisson regression with robust standard errors to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) for factors associated with mental health outcomes. Students experienced high rates of anxiety/depression and financial instability due to the pandemic. Half of the students reported anxiety/depression (54.5%) and an increased need for mental health services (49.0%) as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority (81.1%) reported loss of household income, and half (49.8%) reported worries about losing housing. High levels of food (aPR = 1.4, 95% CI 1.2, 1.6) and housing (aPR = 1.3, 95% CI 1.2, 1.4) insecurity were the strongest predictors of anxiety/depression. Household and personal experiences with possible COVID-19 symptoms were also associated with anxiety/depression or the need for increased mental health services. Addressing student needs at public urban universities requires an integrated holistic approach that targets urgent mental health and economic needs related to the impact of COVID-19. Students who become infected need mental health services as well as health monitoring.
了解 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行对学生健康和经济稳定的影响对于制定有效的干预措施以减轻这些影响至关重要，这些影响可能对他们的健康和福祉产生长期影响。城市中心的公立大学代表了美国大学生的很大一部分。我们于 2020 年 4 月在纽约市的一所大型公立大学对 2282 名学生进行了基于人群的横断面在线调查。我们创建了权重以考虑到无回应，并使用带有稳健标准误差的泊松回归来估计与心理健康结果相关的因素的调整后患病率比（aPR）。由于大流行，学生经历了高焦虑/抑郁和经济不稳定的比率。由于 COVID-19 大流行，有一半的学生报告焦虑/抑郁（54.5%）和对精神卫生服务需求增加（49.0%）。大多数（81.1%）报告家庭收入损失，有一半（49.8%）报告担心失去住房。高水平的食物（aPR = 1.4，95%CI 1.2，1.6）和住房（aPR = 1.3，95%CI 1.2，1.4）不安全是焦虑/抑郁的最强预测因素。家庭和个人经历可能与 COVID-19 相关的症状也与焦虑/抑郁或需要增加精神卫生服务有关。满足公立城市大学校园学生的需求需要一种综合的整体方法，该方法需要针对与 COVID-19 影响有关的紧急心理健康和经济需求。感染的学生需要心理健康服务以及健康监测。
