Alomar Muaed, Palaian Subish, Shanableh Sawsan
Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.
Adv Med Educ Pract. 2021 Nov 24;12:1361-1369. doi: 10.2147/AMEP.S324274. eCollection 2021.
BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused huge disruptions worldwide affecting most people including university students. The impact of the pandemic lockdown on pharmacy students' stress levels and quality of life (QoL) is not well studied. This study assessed the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on perceived stress levels and QoL among final-year undergraduate pharmacy students at Ajman University, United Arab Emirates (UAE). METHODS: A cross-sectional electronic survey was conducted among final-year Bachelor of Pharmacy students at Ajman University during the COVID-19 lockdown period. The perceived stress scale and World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument (WHOQOL-BREF) were administered through Google Forms. The filled responses were exported to IBM SPSS statistics, Version 26, scored as per the standard scoring procedures, and analyzed to answer the study objectives. Since the data were not distributed normally (p=0.000, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test), non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney test and Kruskal-Wallis test) were performed to compare the median (IQR) scores with demographic parameters at an alpha value of 0.05. RESULTS: Of the eligible 94 students, 81 (male=16, 19.8%, female = 65, 80.2%) responded. The perceived stress level due to COVID-19 among the participants of a score of 24 suggests that the students suffered a "moderate" level of stress with no statistical significance between genders regardless of the place of residence in the seven Emirates (p=0.371) of the UAE. During the previous month of conducting the survey, 40.7% (n=33) of the respondents "very often" felt nervous and 22% (n=18) "fairly often" felt nervous with a median (IQR) score 3 (2-4); 3 denotes 'sometimes'. Of the respondents, 6.2% (n=14) "very often" and 21% (n=17) "fairly often" felt that things were going their own way. Regarding the QoL statements, a median (IQR) score of 3 (3-4) was obtained for the question on "How much do you enjoy life?", and the median scores were "4 (very much)" for more than half of the statements overall denoting a better QoL. The study reported females to have more physical pain, which may prevent them from carrying out their daily activities, than males (p=0.001) reflecting a better QoL among males over females during the lockdown. It also reflects a higher need for medications among females compared to males (p=0.014). All participants showed negative feelings, which is more apparent among male participants (4, 3-4.5) when compared to female participants (3, 2-3) (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on perceived stress and self-reported QoL is minimum. Age, gender and other demographic factors had little or no effect on stress levels, but gender influenced "experience of physical pain" and "requirement for medications", with more likelihood in females. Student friendly educational approaches and proper implementation of educational reforms can help minimizing student stress and improving QoL during vulnerable times like lockdowns.
背景:2019年冠状病毒病(COVID-19)大流行在全球范围内造成了巨大破坏,影响了包括大学生在内的大多数人。大流行封锁对药学专业学生压力水平和生活质量(QoL)的影响尚未得到充分研究。本研究评估了COVID-19封锁对阿联酋阿治曼大学本科最后一年药学专业学生感知压力水平和生活质量的影响。 方法:在COVID-19封锁期间,对阿治曼大学本科最后一年的药学专业学生进行了一项横断面电子调查。通过谷歌表单发放感知压力量表和世界卫生组织生活质量量表(WHOQOL-BREF)。填写好的回复被导出到IBM SPSS Statistics 26版本,按照标准评分程序进行评分,并进行分析以回答研究目标。由于数据分布不呈正态(p = 0.000,Kolmogorov-Smirnov检验),因此进行非参数检验(Mann-Whitney检验和Kruskal-Wallis检验),以α值0.05比较中位数(IQR)得分与人口统计学参数。 结果:在符合条件的94名学生中,81名(男性 = 16名,19.8%;女性 = 65名,80.2%)做出了回应。参与者因COVID-19产生的感知压力水平得分为24,这表明学生们承受着“中度”压力,无论居住在阿联酋七个酋长国的何处,性别之间均无统计学差异(p = 0.371)。在进行调查的前一个月,40.7%(n = 33)的受访者“非常频繁”感到紧张,22%(n = 18)“相当频繁”感到紧张,中位数(IQR)得分为3(2 - 4);3表示“有时”。在受访者中,6.2%(n = 14)“非常频繁”且21%(n = 17)“相当频繁”感觉事情正按自己的方式发展。关于生活质量陈述,在“你有多享受生活?”这个问题上,中位数(IQR)得分为3(3 - 4),总体上超过一半的陈述中位数得分是“4(非常享受)”,表明生活质量较好。研究报告称,女性比男性有更多身体疼痛,这可能会妨碍她们进行日常活动(p = 0.001),这反映出封锁期间男性的生活质量优于女性。这也反映出女性相比男性对药物的需求更高(p = 0.014)。所有参与者都表现出负面情绪,与女性参与者(3,2 - 3)相比,男性参与者(4,3 - 4.5)中更为明显(P = 0.001)。 结论:COVID-19封锁对感知压力和自我报告的生活质量的影响最小。年龄、性别和其他人口统计学因素对压力水平影响很小或没有影响,但性别影响“身体疼痛体验”和“药物需求”,女性更有可能出现这种情况。对学生友好的教育方法和教育改革的妥善实施有助于在封锁等脆弱时期将学生压力降至最低并提高生活质量。
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