Mental health in health students during coronavirus disease-19: Systematic review

Purnama, A.; Susaldi, Mukhlida H. Z.; Maulida, H. H.; Purwati, N. H.

AIM: This study aims to examine the description of mental health characteristics of health students who conducted studies during the Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic. METHODS: The design of this study used a systematic review approach by collecting several articles from a database that has been selected consisting of Springer, Science Direct, and ProQuest with articles published in 2020. Search for articles was carried out by entering the keyword “mental health AND student AND COVID-19.” The search for this article was limited to inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria in this study were health students who were still conducting studies during the COVID-19 pandemic and a cross-sectional study design, while the exclusion criteria were non-health students, only abstracts and books, and letters to the editor. RESULTS: After a search on the selected database, the results are 677 Springer articles, 556 Science direct articles, and 1348 ProQuest articles. Eleven were removed for duplicates, 446 full texts were reviewed, and eight articles matched inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results of the eight articles that were reviewed showed that the majority of health students reported mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, stress, and another emotional status, where moderate and severe levels of anxiety were experienced by some health students who carried out education during the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on psychological conditions, especially on health students who are carrying out their education. Students report poor mental health conditions while carrying out home education by learning online during the COVID-19 pandemic.