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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1430256
This article is part of the Research Topic The Impact of Psychological Well-Being on University Students View all 23 articles

Time Patterns in Online Survey Completion and Offline Psychological Symptoms Among College Students in China

Provisionally accepted
Yiyang Liu Yiyang Liu 1Shuang Xu Shuang Xu 2Peiyue Yang Peiyue Yang 2Haolou Feng Haolou Feng 2Shaoshuai Wu Shaoshuai Wu 2Xiaoping Yin Xiaoping Yin 3Guowei Zhang Guowei Zhang 3Qi Lu Qi Lu 4Zhichen Dong Zhichen Dong 4Shunfei Li Shunfei Li 5Hongguang Chen Hongguang Chen 1*
  • 1 Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, China
  • 2 Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, China
  • 3 Hebei University, Baoding, Hebei Province, China
  • 4 Health Science Centre, Peking University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 5 Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Online psychological surveys allow for swift data collection among college students, thus providing a foundation for psychological interventions, particularly during emergent public health events. However, the association between online survey completion behaviors and offline psychological symptoms has yet to be explored.A large-scale web-based survey was conducted from December 31, 2022, to January 7, 2023, involving 22,624 participants. Psychological symptoms were assessed using standardized measures, while the time taken to complete the survey and the time of completion were recorded by the online survey platform.As the time duration increased, the prevalence of anxiety, depression, insomnia, and PTSD also increased significantly (Pfor trend<.001). The highest odds ratios were observed in the longer duration group. Only a longer duration was significantly associated with PTSD. The time period for completing the questionnaire from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. was found to be significantly linked with anxiety symptoms and depression symptoms. Conversely, completing the questionnaire at other times was specifically associated with anxiety symptoms and insomnia symptoms. The prolonged duration needed to complete the questionnaire was more closely related to the comorbidity of anxiety, depression, and insomnia than to the comorbidity of those symptoms with PTSD. When questionnaires were completed during other times, specifically referring to the late-night and early morning hours, individuals were more likely to exhibit comorbid symptoms of insomnia.The study identified the specific associations between time durations, time points for completing online survey, and psychological symptoms/comorbidity among college students. Further exploration of their causal relationships and the underlying mechanisms is warranted.

    Keywords: Online Behavior, Psychological symptoms, Digital Public Health, college students, Epidemiology

    Received: 10 May 2024; Accepted: 04 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Xu, Yang, Feng, Wu, Yin, Zhang, Lu, Dong, Li and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Hongguang Chen, Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, China

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