Depression and anxiety among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: A web-based cross-sectional survey

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 15; no. 8; p. e0238162
• Main Authors: Islam, Md. Akhtarul, Barna, Sutapa Dey, Raihan, Hasin, Khan, Md. Nafiul Alam, Hossain, Md. Tanvir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 26.08.2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Anxiety; Anxiety - epidemiology; Anxiety disorders; Bangladesh - epidemiology; Biology and Life Sciences; Bivariate analysis; College students; Communicable Disease Control; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; Coronavirus Infections - prevention & control; Coronavirus Infections - psychology; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Cross sections; Cross-sectional studies; Depression (Mood disorder); Depression - epidemiology; Digital media; Disease transmission; Engineering; Epidemics; Exercise; Female; Females; Health aspects; Humans; Logistic Models; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental depression; Mental health; Multivariate analysis; Pandemics; Pandemics - prevention & control; People and Places; Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology; Pneumonia, Viral - prevention & control; Pneumonia, Viral - psychology; Polls & surveys; Psychological aspects; Quarantine; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Respiratory diseases; Risk factors; Sampling techniques; Social networks; Social Sciences; Students; Students - psychology; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Universities; University students; Variables; Young Adult; Bangladesh
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238162

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of depression and anxiety among Bangladeshi university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also aimed at identifying the determinants of depression and anxiety. A total of 476 university students living in Bangladesh participated in this cross-sectional web-based survey. A standardized e-questionnaire was generated using the Google Form, and the link was shared through social media-Facebook. The information was analyzed in three consecutive levels, such as univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis. Students were experiencing heightened depression and anxiety. Around 15% of the students reportedly had moderately severe depression, whereas 18.1% were severely suffering from anxiety. The binary logistic regression suggests that older students have greater depression (OR = 2.886, 95% CI = 0.961-8.669). It is also evident that students who provided private tuition in the pre-pandemic period had depression (OR = 1.199, 95% CI = 0.736-1.952). It is expected that both the government and universities could work together to fix the academic delays and financial problems to reduce depression and anxiety among university students.