Academic health services and health needs of college students around the era of the Covid-19 pandemic

Main Article Content

Eirini Kotsalou
Evanthia Sakellari
Areti Lagiou
Evaggelia Kotsalou

Abstract

Objective: The university medical services vary around the world (even within each university), but there are only a few publications on the utilization of these services by the students. The available on-campus services of public health care might include general health care, women’s centers, mental health care, disability services, wellness resource centers, career counseling, and alcohol and other drug education programs.


Evidence Acquisition: This paper reviews the current literature on the overtime and current (due to Covid-19 pandemic) public health needs of college students based on studies that report the commonest specific diagnostic reasons for using the on-campus health care services.


Results: Special reference is done on mental health problems among students generally and the students of health professions fields (a specific category themselves). Besides, other issues of interest are the substance-related problems among students and their perceptions about mental health problems and on- campus help- seeking services.


Conclusions: It is unanimous that we need further educational and promotional campaigns to enhance the students; help-seeking behaviors, reduce stigmatizing behaviors and create more preventive public health services on campus, but also out-campus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Kotsalou, E., Sakellari, E. ., Lagiou, A., & Kotsalou, E. (2021). Academic health services and health needs of college students around the era of the Covid-19 pandemic. Medical Science and Discovery, 8(4), 193–197. https://doi.org/10.36472/msd.v8i4.505
Section
Review Article
Received 2021-03-05
Accepted 2021-04-02
Published 2021-04-03

References

Bourdon J, Moore A, Long E, Kendler K, Dick D. The Relationship Between on-Campus Service Utilization and Common Mental Health Concerns in Undergraduate College Students. Psychol Serv.: 10.1037/ser0000296. Published online 2018 Oct 8. doi: 10.1037/ser0000296.

Wechsler H, Weitzman ER, Nelson TF. College Alcohol Study. Cambridge, MA: Harvard School of Public Health; 2004. Available at: http://archive.sph.harvard.edu/cas/About/index.html. Accessed August 1, 2014

Dorman JM, Christmas WA. Primary care issues in college health. In: Turner HS, Hurley JL, eds. The History and Practice of College Health. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky; 2002:104–117.

Fingar A. Patient problems encountered at a student health service. J Am Coll Health. 1989;38:142–144. doi: 10.1080/07448481.1989.9938433.

Bolten A, Khan F, Asamoah B, Agardh Anette, Bolten A et al. Barriers faced by Ugandan university students in seeking medical care and sexual health counselling: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health 2012, 12:986 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/986

Turner JC, Keller A. College Health Surveillance Network: Epidemiology and Health Care Utilization of College Students at US 4-Year Universities. J Am Coll Health. 2015 Nov 17; 63(8): 530–538. Published online 2015 Nov 16. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2015.1055567.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd/icd9cm.htm. Accessed February 11, 2015

Średniawa A, Drwiła D, Krotos A, Wojtaś D, Kostecka N, Tomasik T. Insomnia and the level of stress among students in Krakow, Poland. Trends Psychiatry Psychother. Jan-Mar 2019;41(1):60-68. doi: 10.1590/2237-6089-2017-0154. Epub 2019 Feb 4.

Miller ML, Boyer C, Emerson MR, et al. Report of the 2017-2018 student affairs standing committee. Am J Pharm Educ. 2018; 82(7): Article 7159. doi:10.5688/ajpe7159.

Tavolacci MP, Delay J, Grigioni S, De´chelotte P, Ladner J. Changes and specificities in health behaviors among healthcare students over an 8-year period. PLoS One. 2018; 13(3):1-18. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0194188.

Eisenberg D, Hunt J, Speer N. Helpseekingfor mental healthoncollege campuses: review of evidence and next steps for research and practice. Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2012; 20(4):222-232. doi:10.3109/10673229.2012.712839.

Ibrahim MB, Abdelreheem MH. Prevalence of anxiety and depression among medical and pharmaceutical students in Alexandria University. Alexandria J Med. 2015; 51(2):167-173. doi:10.1016/j.ajme.2014.06.002.

Rotenstein LS, Ramos MA, Torre M, et al. Prevalence of depression, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation among medical students. JAMA. 2016; 326(21):2214-2236. doi:10.1001/ jama.2016.17324.

MacLean L, Booza J, Balon R. The impact of medical school on student mental health. Acad Psychiatry. 2016; 40(1):89–91. doi: 10.1007/s40596-015-0301-5. Epub 2015 Mar 7.

Garber MC. Exercise as a stress coping mechanism in a pharmacy student population. Am J Pharm Educ. 2017; 81(3): Article 50. doi:10.5688/ajpe81350.

Mayberry KM, Miller LN. Incidence of self-reported depression among pharmacy residents in Tennessee. Am J Pharm Educ. 2017; 81(8):78-83. doi:10.5688/ajpe5960.

Silva RG, Figueiredo-Braga M. Evaluation of the relationships among happiness, stress, anxiety, and depression in pharmacy students. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2018; 10(7):903-910. doi:10.1016/j.cptl.2018.04.002.

Fischbein R, Bonfine N. Pharmacy and Medical Students’ Mental Health Symptoms, Experiences, Attitudes and Help-Seeking Behaviors. Am J Pharm Educ. 2019 Dec; 83(10): 7558. doi: 10.5688/ajpe7558.

Association of American Medical Colleges. “Who We Are” https://www.aamc.org/who-we-are. Accessed December 19, 2019.

Association of American Medical Colleges. Table B-1.2: Total Enrollment by U.S. Medical School and Sex, 2014-2015 through 2018-2019. https://www.aamc.org/download/321526/data/ factstableb1-2.pdf. Published 2018. Accessed February 12, 2019.

Dahlin M, Nilsson C, Stotzer E, Runeson B. Mental distress, alcohol use and help-seeking among medical and business students: a cross-sectional comparative study. BMC Med Educ. 2011; 11(92). doi:10.1186/1472-6920-11-92.

Ayala EE, Roseman D, Winseman JS, Mason HRC. Prevalence, perceptions, and consequences of substance use in medical students. Med Educ Online. 2017; 22(1):1392824. doi: 10.1080/10872981.2017.1392824.

Al-Shatnawi SF, Perri M, Young HN, Norton M. Substance use attitudes, behaviors, education and prevention in colleges of pharmacy in the United States. Am J Pharm Educ. 2016 Nov 25; 80(9): 160. doi: 10.5688/ajpe809160

D’Amico N, Mechling B, Kemppainen J, Ahern NR, Lee J. American college students’ views of depression and utilization of on-campus counseling services. J Am Psychiatr Nurses Assoc. 2016 Jul; 22(4):302-11. doi: 10.1177/1078390316648777.

Eisenberg D, Hunt J, Speer N. Help seeking for mental health on college campuses: Review of evidence and next steps for research and practice. Harvard Review of Psychiatry. 2012; 20(4):222–232

Lipson SK, Gaddis M, Heinze J, Beck K, Eisenberg D. Variations in Student Mental Health and Treatment Utilization Across US Colleges and Universities. J Am Coll Health. 2015; 63(6):388-96. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2015.1040411.

Geslani GP, Gaebelein CJ. Perceived stress, stressors, and mental distress among doctor of pharmacy students. Soc Behav Personal Int J. 2013; 41(9):1457-1468. doi:10.2224/sbp.2013.41.9.1457.

Lally J, Conghaile A, Quigley S, Bainbridge E, McDonald C. Stigma of mental illness and help-seeking intention in university students. BJPsych Bull. 2013; 37(8):253-260. doi:10.1192/ pb.bp.112.041483.

Lipson SK, Zhou S, Wagner B, III, Beck K, Eisenberg D. Major Differences: Variations in Undergraduate and Graduate Student Mental Health and Treatment Utilization Acros Academic Disciplines. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy. 2016; 30(1):23–41.

Fletcher I, Castlea M, Scarpaa A, Myersb O, Lawrence E. An exploration of medical student attitudes towards disclosure of mental illness. Medical Education Online 2020, Volume 25, Article 1727713 https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2020.1727713.

Healthy Minds Network. The Healthy Minds Study (HMS). http://healthymindsnetwork.org/research/hms. Published 2019. Accessed January 29, 2019.

Sontag-Padilla L, Woodbridge MW, Mendelsohn J, D’Amico EJ, Osilla KC, Jaycox LH, Stein BD. Factors affecting mental health service utilization among California public college and university students. Psychiatr Serv. 2016 Aug 1; 67(8):890-7. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201500307. Epub 2016 Apr 1.

Association of American Medical Colleges. Medical School Graduation Questionnaire: 2016 All Schools Summary Report. Assoc Am Med Coll. 2016; (July):1-45. https://www.aamc.org/download/ 464412/data/2016gqallschoolssummaryreport.pdf. Accessed February 12, 2019.

Son C, Hegde S, Smith A, Wang X, Sasangohar F. Effects of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health in the United States: Interview Survey Study. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Sep; 22(9): e21279. Published online 2020 Sep 3. doi: 10.2196/21279.

Brooks SK, Webster RK, Smith LE, Woodland L, Wessely S, Greenberg N, et al. The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. Lancet 2020 Mar 14; 395(10227):912-920. Published online 2020 Feb 26. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8.

Lai J, Ma S, Wang Y, Cai Z, Hu J, Wei N, et al. Factors associated with mental health outcomes among health care workers exposed to coronavirus disease 2019. JAMA Netw Open. 2020 Mar; 3(3): e203976. Published online 2020 Mar 23. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.3976.

Xie X, Xue Q, Zhou Y, Zhu K, Liu Q, Zhang J, et al. Mental health status among children in home confinement during the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak in Hubei Province, China. JAMA Pediatr 2020 Apr 24:e201619. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.1619 (Epub ahead of print).

Cao W, Fang Z, Hou G, Han M, Xu X, Dong J, et al. The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China. Psychiatry Res 2020 May; 287:112934. Published online 2020 Mar 20. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112934.

Liu X, Liu J, Zhong X. Psychological state of college students during COVID-19 epidemic. SSRN J 2020 Mar 24:A. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3552814). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3552814 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3552814

Wang C, Zhao H. The impact of COVID-19 on anxiety in Chinese university students. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1168. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01168

Bruffaerts R, Mortier P, Kiekens G, Auerbach RP, Cuijpers P, Demyttenaere K, et al. Mental health problems in college freshmen: prevalence and academic functioning. J Affect Disord 2018 Jan 01; 225:97-103. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.07.044. Epub 2017 Jul 25.

Zhai Y, Du X. Mental health care for international Chinese students affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020 Apr; 7(4):e22. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30089-4.

de Oliveira Araújo FJ, de Lima LSA, Cidade PIM, Nobre CB, Neto MLR. Impact of Sars-Cov-2 and its reverberation in global higher education and mental health. Psychiatry Res 2020 Jun; 288:112977. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112977. Epub 2020 Apr 12.

Most read articles by the same author(s)