Prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Meta-Analysis Attending SDG 3 and 4 of the 2030 Agenda

Nahia Idoiaga, Idoia Legorburu, Naiara Ozamiz-Etxebarria, Darren M. Lipnicki, Beatriz Villagrasa and Javier Santabárbara
Additional contact information
Nahia Idoiaga: Department of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, 48940 Leioa, Spain
Idoia Legorburu: Department Didactics and School Organisation, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, 48940 Leioa, Spain
Naiara Ozamiz-Etxebarria: Department of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, 48940 Leioa, Spain
Darren M. Lipnicki: Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
Beatriz Villagrasa: Psychogeriatry, CASM Benito Menni, 08830 Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain
Javier Santabárbara: Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Ministry of Science and Innovation, 28029 Madrid, Spain

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: Background: Most universities around the world have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. Many students were isolated at home and underwent a forced transition from face-to-face learning to e-learning, at least in the first few months. The subsequent months and years were typically characterised by a slow return to normal learning under COVID-19 protocols and restrictions. A potential consequence of the lockdowns, social restrictions and changes to learning is the development of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) in university students, affecting their health and well-being (SDG3) and quality of education (SDG4). Materials and Methods: Medline was searched through PubMed for studies on the prevalence of PTSD in university students from 1 December 2019 to 31 December 2021. The pooled prevalence of PTSD was calculated with random-effects models. Results: A total of six studies were included, across which the prevalence of PTSD among university students was 23%. Meta-regression showed that the prevalence of PTSD was significantly higher with older age, but independent of the percentage of women in a study or its methodological quality. Conclusions: Our results suggest that students suffer from PTSD at a moderate rate. Measures are needed to address the mental health issues of university students that have arisen during COVID-19 all around the world.

Keywords: university students; post-traumatic stress disorder; gender; age; countries; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7914/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7914/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7914-:d:851235

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().