AUTHOR=Cebrino Jesús , Portero de la Cruz Silvia 

TITLE=Psychological impact of COVID-19 and determinants among Spanish university students

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1252849

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1252849

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Background</title><p>University students are a vulnerable population and faced a significant psychological impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the level of fear of COVID-19 among university students and to evaluate the possible relationship between fear of COVID-19 and socio-demographic, health-related determinants, variables related to the COVID-19 and variables related to the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>We conducted a cross-sectional study between December 2020 and December 2021 on a sample of 950 university students from two universities in southern Spain. Participants completed a form that collected socio-demographic, health-related and COVID-related variables, a validated questionnaire related to the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fear of COVID Scale (FCV-19S). Descriptive, inferential, and multivariable linear regression analyzes were conducted.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>The mean FCV-19S score was 14.86 ± 5.16 points. The factors identified as predictors of FCV-19S were being female (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), holding religious beliefs (<italic>p</italic> = 0.04), living in towns with over 10,000 inhabitants (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01), living with someone vulnerable to COVID-19 (<italic>p</italic> = 0.02), watching TV to keep informed about COVID-19 (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01), believing in a low probability of surviving if infected with COVID-19 (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), having a higher level of death anxiety (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) and suffering from insomnia (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001).</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>An average fear of COVID-19 score of 14.86 ± 5.16 points has been found among university students in Spain. These findings can aid in identifying specific factors contributing to fear of COVID-19 and in developing coping strategies to alleviate the stress of the pandemic.</p></sec>