Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, John Paul II University of Applied Sciences in Biala Podlaska, 21-500 Biala Podlaska, Poland.
Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, John Paul II University of Applied Sciences in Biala Podlaska, 21-500 Biala Podlaska, Poland.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 27;19(21):13994. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192113994.
COVID-19 pandemic has struck all of us suddenly and unexpectedly; it deprived the society of a sense of control over their lives on different levels. In a short period of time, it led to a number of changes in everyday life of people all over the world. In particular, these changes affected medical staff, who, all of a sudden, were burdened with new work-related responsibilities and duties. This situation may have had a detrimental effect on their mental health. Due to the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic, we attempted to assess its consequences in terms of mental health and physical fitness of university students from countries in which different approaches to these issues were adopted.
A total of 779 medical students (374 students from John Paul II University of Applied Sciences (ABNS) in Biala Podlaska, Poland, and 405 students from Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno (YKSUG), Belarus) took part in the survey. Three standardised psychometric tools were used in the study: The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and Stress Coping Inventory (Mini-COPE). In addition, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was applied.
The vast majority of students both from Poland and Belarus demonstrated high levels of physical activity. However, students from ABNS manifested significantly higher levels of physical activity compared to their counterparts from YKSUG. Students from Biala Podlaska had greater satisfaction with life during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas their peers from Grodno exhibited higher levels of mental distress.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant exacerbation of mental health issues among medical students. In order to alleviate negative effects of the pandemic, it seems necessary for universities to monitor the physical and mental health state of students and to implement prevention programmes.
COVID-19 大流行突然且出人意料地袭击了我们所有人；它使社会在不同层面上失去了对生活的控制感。在短时间内，它导致了全世界人们日常生活的许多变化。特别是，这些变化影响了医务人员，他们突然承担了新的与工作相关的责任和义务。这种情况可能对他们的心理健康产生了不利影响。由于 COVID-19 大流行的不可预测性，我们试图评估其对来自采取不同方法应对这些问题的国家的大学生心理健康和身体健康的影响。
共有 779 名医学生（374 名学生来自波兰比拉·波德拉谢的约翰·保罗二世应用科学大学（ABNS），405 名学生来自白俄罗斯格罗德诺的扬卡·库帕拉国立大学（YKSUG））参加了调查。研究中使用了三种标准化心理计量工具：生活满意度量表（SWLS）、一般健康问卷（GHQ-28）和应激应对量表（Mini-COPE）。此外，还应用了国际体力活动问卷（IPAQ）。
绝大多数波兰和白俄罗斯的学生都表现出较高的身体活动水平。然而，ABNS 的学生表现出的身体活动水平明显高于 YKSUG 的学生。比拉·波德拉谢的学生在 COVID-19 大流行期间对生活的满意度更高，而他们来自格罗德诺的同龄人则表现出更高的精神困扰水平。
COVID-19 大流行导致医学生的心理健康问题显著恶化。为了减轻大流行的负面影响，似乎有必要让大学监测学生的身心健康状况，并实施预防计划。
