Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32927871›Full record

SynthesisInternational journal of environmental research and public health2020

Prevalence of Anxiety in Medical Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Rapid Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.

Isabel Lasheras, Patricia Gracia-García, Darren M Lipnicki, Juan Bueno-Notivol, Raúl López-Antón, Concepción de la Cámara, Antonio Lobo, Javier Santabárbara

Erratum issuedOpen access · goldAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 120 papers, 21 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
120citing papers in PubMed, 21 pooled it
22.0field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

120 citing papers in PubMed, 21 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 292 citations in OpenAlex.

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  11. Prevalence of Anxiety in University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
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  13. Family and School Relationship during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
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  15. Prevalence of Anxiety in Dental Students during the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
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  18. Prevalence of anxiety in the COVID-19 pandemic: An updated meta-analysis of community-based studies.Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry · 2021
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60 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.

Isabel LasherasDepartment of Microbiology, Pediatrics, Radiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zaragoza, Building A, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.
Patricia Gracia-GarcíaPsychiatry Service, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Paseo Isabel la Católica, 1-3, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.
Darren M LipnickiCentre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales Medicine, Randwick 2052, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-1684-3577
Juan Bueno-NotivolPsychiatry Service, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Paseo Isabel la Católica, 1-3, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.
Raúl López-AntónCentro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Ministry of Science and Innovation, Avenue Monforte de Lemos, 3-5, Pavilion 11, Floor 0, 28029 Madrid, Spain.
Concepción de la CámaraCentro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Ministry of Science and Innovation, Avenue Monforte de Lemos, 3-5, Pavilion 11, Floor 0, 28029 Madrid, Spain.
Antonio LoboInstituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Aragón (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, Spain, Avenue San Juan Bosco, 13, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.
Javier SantabárbaraDepartment of Microbiology, Pediatrics, Radiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zaragoza, Building A, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-7297-6104
Universidad de Zaragoza · ESHospital Universitario Miguel Servet · ESCentro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental · ESInstituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón · ESUNSW Sydney · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has brought a great deal of pressure for medical students, who typically show elevated anxiety rates. Our aim is to investigate the prevalence of anxiety in medical students during this pandemic. This systematic review and mini meta-analysis has been conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. Two researchers independently searched PubMed on 26 August 2020 for cross-sectional studies on medical students during the COVID-19 outbreak, with no language restrictions applied. We then performed a manual search to detect other potentially eligible investigations. To the 1361 records retrieved in the initial search, 4 more were added by manual search on medRxiv. Finally, eight studies were finally included for qualitative and quantitative analysis, which yielded an estimated prevalence of anxiety of 28% (95% CI: 22-34%), with significant heterogeneity between studies. The prevalence of anxiety in medical students is similar to that prior to the pandemic but correlates with several specific COVID-related stressors. While some preventive and risk factors have been previously identified in a non-pandemic context, knowledge and cognitions on COVID-19 transmission, treatment, prognosis and prevention negatively correlate with anxiety, emerging as a key preventive factor that may provide a rationale for why the levels of anxiety have remained stable in medical students during the pandemic while increasing in their non-medical peers and the general population. Other reasons for the invariability of anxiety rates in this population are discussed. A major limitation of our review is that Chinese students comprised 89% the total sample, which could compromise the external validity of our work.

Indexed as

AnxietyBetacoronavirusCoronavirus InfectionsCOVID-19Cross-Sectional StudiesHumansPandemicsPneumonia, ViralPrevalenceSARS-CoV-2Students, MedicalanxietyCOVID-19medical studentsmeta-analysisprevalence

Identifiers

PMID32927871
PMCPMC7560147
OpenAlexW3084093539

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.