ArticleGlobalization and health2021
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological well-being of students in an Italian university: a web-based cross-sectional survey.
Article in Globalization and health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 244 citations in OpenAlex.
- Instruments used to measure well-being, ill-being, and health-related lifestyle behaviors in students attending Italian universities: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Psychological wellbeing of Italian students and clinical assessment tools at university counseling services during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Pooled it
- Post-secondary Student Mental Health During COVID-19: A Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Examining the Mediation Role of Emotion Regulation and Hope in the Impact of COVID-19 on Psychological Well-Being and Mental Health.International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2026Article
- Development, expert validation, and pilot testing of digital mental health literacy program for Filipino college students.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Psychological Problems and Academic Motivation in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study One Year after the COVID-19 Lockdown in Italy.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2025Article
- Public perceptions and engagement in mHealth: a European survey on attitudes toward health apps use and data sharing.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- How Chinese College Students Coped with COVID-19 Burnout: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Mediating Effect of Family Support and Interaction Quality.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The effect of physical activity on anxiety through sleep quality among Chinese high school students: evidence from cross-sectional study and longitudinal study.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Article
- Why do undergraduate medical students choose medical humanities? A cross-sectional study at an Italian University.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on school-going adolescents studying in government schools - A psychosocial perspective.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2024Article
- Article
- Article
- Perceived life balance among young adult students: a comparison between caregivers and non-caregivers.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Psychological distress and academic success: a two-year study comparing the outcome of two online interventions at a university counseling and consultation service in Italy.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Association between sugar-sweetened beverages and duration of physical exercise with psychological symptoms among Tibetan university students at high altitude.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Anxiety, depression, and their comorbidity among Chinese college students during the COVID-19 lockdown in the post-epidemic era: an online cross-sectional survey.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Article
- Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Well-Being, Social Relationships and Academic Performance in a Sample of University Freshmen: A Propensity Score Match Evaluation Pre- and Post-Pandemic.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundItaly was the first European country to implement a national lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Worldwide, this pandemic had a huge impact on the mental health of people in many countries causing similar reaction in terms of emotions and concerns at the population level. Our study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological well-being in a cohort of Italian university students.
methodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey in the period immediately after the first lockdown through the administration of a questionnaire on the personal websites of students attending their undergraduate courses at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. We used the Patient-Health-Engagement-Scale, Self-Rating-Anxiety-Scale, and Self-Rating-Depression-Scale to assess engagement, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms of our sample.
resultsThe sample size was 501 subjects, of which 35.33% were classified as anxious and 72.93% as depressed. Over 90% of respondents had good understanding of the preventive measures despite over 70% suffered from the impossibility of physically seeing friends and partners. Around 55% of students would have been willing to contribute much more to face the pandemic. An increase in the occurrences of anxiety was associated with being female, being student of the Rome campus, suffering from the impossibility of attending university, being distant from colleagues, and being unable of physically seeing one's partner. Performing physical activity reduced this likelihood.
conclusionUniversity students are at risk of psychological distress in the case of traumatic events. The evolution of the pandemic is uncertain and may have long-term effects on mental health. Therefore, it is crucial to study the most effective interventions to identify vulnerable subgroups and to plan for acute and long-term psychological services to control and reduce the burden of psychological problems.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.