Effects of COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on lifestyle and mental health of students: A retrospective study from Karachi, Pakistan

• Published in: Annales médico psychologiques 2022-06, Vol.180 (6), p.S29-S37
• Main Authors: Ali, Abraish, Siddiqui, Asad Ali, Arshad, Muhammad Sameer, Iqbal, Fizza, Arif, Taha Bin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COVID-19; Digital media; Flux temporel perçu; Mental health; Médias numériques; Original; Perceived time flow; Rythme de sommeil; Santé mentale; Sleep pattern
• ISSN: 0003-4487; 1769-6631; 0003-4487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.amp.2021.02.004

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries imposed lockdowns on their citizens in an attempt to contain the disease. Pakistan is one of these countries. A government mandated lockdown can have mitigating psychological effects on young adults, out of which a large fraction is made up of students. This study aims to investigate the correlations between changes in sleep pattern, perception of time, and digital media usage. Furthermore, it explores the impact of these changes on the mental health of students of different educational levels. This cross-sectional study was conducted via a web-based questionnaire, from March 24 to April 26, 2020. The survey was targeted at students and 251 responses were obtained. It was a 5-section long questionnaire. The first section inquired about demographics of participants. Each of the other 4 sections was devoted to changes in sleep pattern, perception of time flow, digital media usage and mental health status of students. Close-ended questions with multiple choice responses, dichotomous, interval and 4-point Likert scales were used in the construction of the survey questionnaire. Chi2 T-tests multinomial and binary logistic regression were used as primary statistical tests. All data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Out of 251 adolescents that participated in our study, the majority (70.2%) were females. The mean age of the participants was 19.40±1.62 years. Two-thirds of the respondents did not have much trouble falling asleep (66.5%). The analysis found no significant association between longer sleep periods and procrastination level (P=0.054). Nearly three-fourths (72.9%) of our participants felt that getting through quarantine would have been more difficult if they did not have any electronic gadgets. Of these, a majority (85.8%) had a general feeling of tiredness and lacked motivation (P=0.023). Additionally, a large number of students (69.7%) had reported that time is seemingly moving faster. A significant relationship between increased usage of electronic items and longer sleep periods was also noted (P=0.005). With respect to the level of education, statistically significant values were noted for alarm use both before and after quarantine began (P=0.021 and P=0.004, respectively). Further analysis showed that there was a significant difference in the median difference of time spent on social media before the outbreak (3.0±32.46) and time spen