SynthesisBrain and behavior2023
Global prevalence and trend of anxiety among graduate students: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Brain and behavior, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Nature human behaviour · 2026Pooled it
- Global prevalence and trend of anxiety among graduate students: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain and behavior · 2023Pooled it
- From blueprint to practice: an innovative dynamic 9-box grid improves exercise participation and aerobic capacity in graduate students.Frontiers in public health · 2025Trial
- Self-Efficacy, Intrinsic Motivation, and Self-Regulated Learning as Predictors of Thesis Quality and Process Efficiency Among Undergraduate Students: A PLS-SEM Study.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026Article
- Psychological resilience moderates the association between adverse academic events and probable anxiety disorder in Chinese clinical medicine postgraduates: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Micro- and Nanoplastics in the Human Brain: Mechanistic Plausibility, Translational Challenges, and Links to Neurological Disease Trends.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Graduate student voices on stress and mental health: Narrative survey results from a Midsouth University in the United States.Preventive medicine reports · 2026Article
- Navigating Academic Identity: A Qualitative Exploration of Graduate Students' Conference Participation Behaviors and Academic Socialization Processes.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- DataVersify: A Framework for Data Literacy Instruction Featuring Scientist Stories.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Anxiety towards research and associated factors among postgraduate students of Jimma University Institute of Health, southwest Ethiopia.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Supervisor-group culture, age and the stress-burnout mechanism: a qualitative study of Chinese doctoral students.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- An empirical study on the relationship between state anxiety, acute mountain sickness, oxygen saturation, and rating of perceived exertion among graduate students during high-altitude mountaineering.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- A randomized controlled trial comparing Mindfulness and Heartfulness meditation programmes on stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and wellbeing among distance-learning postgraduates.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The association between financial strain, psychological distress and subsequent depression: findings from a Norwegian national study.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- Future Me, a Prospection-Based Chatbot to Promote Mental Well-Being in Youth: Two Exploratory User Experience Studies.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Article
- Prevalence and risk factors of depressive and anxiety symptoms and functional constipation among university students in Eastern China.World journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- The association between autism, camouflaging and anxiety with suicidal ideation in women.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Does graduate students' satisfaction with research laboratory affect their anxiety? Findings from a cross-sectional study at a Japanese university.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The influence of mentalization and psychological flexibility on the mental health of graduate students in China: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the comprehensive prevalence of anxiety among postgraduates and estimate its changes with a meta-analysis.
methodSystematic retrieval to SAGE, ERIC, EBSCO, Wiley, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science database was performed for quantitative studies on the prevalence of anxiety among graduate students published before November 22, 2022. The prevalence of anxiety synthesized with random-effects model, and subgroup analysis was conducted by study characteristics (publication year, sampling method, and measurements) and subjects' characteristics (gender, region, and educational level).
resultFifty studies were included in the meta-analysis, totaling 39,668 graduate students. The result revealed that 34.8% of graduates suffered from the anxiety (95% CI: 29.5%-40.5%). Specifically, 19.1% (95% CI: 15.4%-23.5%) had mild anxiety, 15.1% (95% C: 11.6%-19.6%) had moderate anxiety, and 10.3% (95% CI: 7.2%-14.6%) had severe anxiety. And this prevalence showed a upward trend since 2005. Besides, master students suffered slightly less than doctoral students (29.2% vs. 34.3%), and female had similar anxiety to male (26.4% vs. 24.9%). Due to the COVID-19, the prevalence of anxiety is higher after the pandemic than that before (any anxiety: 34.3% vs. 24.8%). Compared with other countries, students from Saudi Arabia, India, and Nepal were more vulnerable. The results of quality assessment showed that, 5 (10%) were in high quality, 21 (42%) were in moderate to high quality, 21 (42%) were in low to moderate quality, and 3 (6%) were in low quality. But, the studies with low quality tend to report a higher prevalence than that with high quality (40.3% vs. 13.0%), studies with nonrandom sampling tend to report a higher prevalence than that with random sampling (33.6% vs. 20.7%). Although we included the data collected based on the standard scales, there were higher heterogeneity among the measure (Q = 253.1, df = 12, p < .00).
conclusionMore than one-third postgraduates suffered from anxiety disorder, and this prevalence had a slight upward trend since 2005, school administrators, teachers and students should take joint actions to prevent mental disorder of graduates for deteriorating.
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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.