Mental Health during COVID-19 Pandemic: Does Social Support Count? A Cross-Sectional Survey among Lira University Students, Northern Uganda

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic that began in Wuhan, China towards the end of 2019 is the world’s catastrophe of the 21st-century. As a result, the pandemic has disrupted all sectors of the world’s economies including the education sector depending on their stages of implementation. For the case of tertiary and University institutions, most of them were about to begin examinations but which had to be put on halt as students had to go home. These disruptions could have serious mental health impacts on the individuals. We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the mental health status and its association with social support during the COVID-19 lockdown among undergraduate students of Lira University. We used a non-probability convenience sampling technique to identify the students. We developed an online survey questionnaire using google form and sent to the students’ email and social media contacts. Responses were submitted directly to a google central server in an excel form and later exported to SPSS V.25 for analysis. We used descriptive statistical analysis to show frequency distributions, mean, and graphs and Chi-square test to establish possible relationships. More than half of the respondents, 57% were females, 34.63% were in the age group 21-22 years old, the majority were in the third year (33.97%). The majority of students were in good mental health and had positive social support. The findings also revealed a significant statistical association between social support and mental health status. Based on the results, there is a need to provide social support to students when they are at home during the pandemics such as the COVID-19 to ensure their mental health stability.