ArticlePloS one2025
Highly stressful global event affecting health sciences students: A longitudinal qualitative study.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundStressful events of great magnitude have produced significant changes in society and in health education. University students have faced considerable challenges both during and after such events, which have affected their lifestyles, mental health, the development of academic activities, and changes in education systems due to the adoption of new teaching models and the use of online technology.
objectivesTo explore the perspectives and experiences of university health sciences students regarding their lifestyles and academic stress both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, a highly stressful event. This study also aimed to establish relationships among the criteria involved. DESIGN AND
participantsQualitative analytical-interpretative research using the hermeneutic method was conducted, and the coded numerically matched responses were complementarily analyzed with inferential statistics. The sample consisted of 1,735 students enrolled in the Nursing, Physiotherapy, Clinical Laboratory, Medicine, Dentistry, and Clinical Psychology programs of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the National University of Chimborazo in Ecuador. Data were collected considering two time points: during mandatory social isolation (T1 = virtual modality) and upon the return to face-to-face activities (T2 = face-to-face modality).
resultsAfter analyzing the texts produced by the students, four main themes were identified: (1) lifestyle modifications; (2) the alteration of academic activities; (3) a preference for the vocational training modality; and (4) academic stress. Significant differences were identified between male and female students. As for academic programs with numerically matched codes 33 codes were identified at T1 and 35 at T2.
conclusionsCOVID-19, a stressful event of great magnitude impacted the lifestyles of health sciences students and caused them academic stress. Academic program and gender were statistically significant in some of the changes. During isolation and in the return to face-to-face learning, the students modified their lifestyles and experienced academic overload.
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.