PERCEIVED MENTAL HEALTH STATUS OF UNDERGRADUATE PHYSIOTHERAPY STUDENTS AT A TERTIARY INSTITUTION IN SOUTH AFRICA DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

N. Mshunqane¹, N. Muhl¹, D. de Jager¹, K. Myburg¹, B. Nkomo¹, A. du Plessis¹, N. Msiza¹, S. Cassim Noor Mohamed¹

¹University of Pretoria, Physiotherapy, Pretoria, South Africa

Background: Psychologists believed the disruptions of COVID-19 would result in students being more likely to develop mental health disorders. Previous research on the pandemic’s impact on students’ mental health, focused primarily on the general student populations. No published studies focused solely on physiotherapy students.

Purpose: To determine the perceived mental health status of undergraduate physiotherapy students at a tertiary institution during COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a pre-validated, self-administered online survey. Ethical clearance was obtained from the university's research Ethics committee for human subjects. Informed consent and permission to use individual student emails (POPI act) was obtained from all participants before the research team could distribute the survey. Descriptive statistics described the data while linear regression analysis established associations between the perception of mental health and the demographic factors.

Results: Eighty-five students participated. Sixty-two (72.9%) participants perceived their own mental health as good-to-excellent before COVID-19. During the pandemic, 58 (68.2%) participants were worried about the virus and its implications. Furthermore, 40 (47.1%) participants perceived their mental health as poor. There was a moderate, positive correlation between the year of study and whether the participants had a poor online learning experience (r = 0.316, p = 0.02).

Conclusions: This study showed that participants perceived their mental health as poorer during the pandemic than before the pandemic. The fourth-year- students were more worried than third-years, which were followed by the second-years.

Implications: This study may aid the department of physiotherapy and student support services in adjusting the current support programs to further empower students suffering from poor mental health.

Funding acknowledgements: This study was self funded

Keywords:
Perceived mental health status
COVID-19 pandemic
Physiotherapy

Topics:
COVID-19
Education: methods of teaching & learning
Education: clinical

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: University of Pretoria, South Africa

Committee: Research Ethics committee for human subjects

Ethics number: 642/2021