Health Parameters of University Students After Pandemic Isolation

July 26, 2024 updated by: Marco Antonio Hernández Lepe, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California

Evaluation of Mental Health, Sleep Quality, Level of Physical Activity, Food Intake, and Body Composition Before and After One Year of Face-to-face Academic Activities in University Students

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus represents threats to global health and economy. The high pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 extent that the Mexican government declared a national health emergency, agreeing to take extraordinary measures such as the suspension of non-essential work, including the suspension of academic activities at all levels, in order to minimize the dispersion and transmission of the virus and its consequences. Several previously reported quarantine evaluations have shown that psychological stress reactions can arise from the experience of physical and social isolation, so the current global threat of isolation has shaken the usual practices of the general population, including young people, and resulting in the modification of their academic, labor and social dynamics.

The usual behavior in this phenomenon establishes that greater social isolation is associated with less satisfaction with life, higher levels of depression and lower levels of psychological well-being or performance as well as changes in diet. Understanding the factors related to coping with COVID-19 is essential to issue guidance on health in the student population, for that, the present proposal intends to evaluate changes in health parameters derived from the resumption of academic activities in person for a year in university students of health sciences area.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) caused an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin in late December 2019, causing coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). After its high contagion capacity, a couple of weeks later the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 an international public security emergency, and by March 2020 it was officially declared a pandemic.

The rapid increase in the number of cases of infection and deaths from COVID-19 forced national governments to take extreme control and prevention measures. In Mexico, the community health strategy was defined in the "National Day of Healthy Distance", where the main guidelines included avoiding inter-personal contagion through confinement, forcing the suspension of all non-essential activities, which included the suspension of academic activities at all levels.

Although the measures that were taken to mitigate the spread of the disease are obtaining favorable results with respect to the transmission of the virus, but the modification of the academic, work, food and social dynamics are having an unprecedented impact on biological, psychological and social health of the population. In this sense, maintaining and promoting the physical and mental health of the population is a challenge that transcends the individual level and demands actions at the local, national and global levels.

Social isolation is a multidimensional event that contemplates both the quantity, as well as the inadequate quality of interactions with other people, including those not only in the family environment, but also at the community level. Social isolation has been studied mainly in older adults derived from their retirement or low mobility, however, the current global threat of isolation has shaken the usual practices of the general population, including young people and resulting in the modification of their academic, labor and social dynamics.

The usual behavior in this phenomenon establishes that greater social isolation is associated with lower life satisfaction, higher levels of depression and lower levels of psychological well-being or performance as well as changes in diet. The invitation to social isolation contemplated in the strategy of the Mexican government promoted the decrease in the level of physical activity in individuals during the last two years, while eating patterns were substantially modified by emotional and economic phenomena associated with each person. These levels of physical activity associated with food choices (voluntary or conditioned) have been shown to negatively affect health.

The lifestyle of university students prior to isolation due to the pandemic was already considered a risk factor for developing chronic non-communicable diseases, due to poor dietary intake, a low level of physical activity and a high level of sedentary lifestyle. Isolation has been shown to decrease physical activity levels and develop poor eating habits in North American university students, specifically in a study that included 125 participants, of which only 16% met the Canadian criteria for physical activity a week before of the pandemic, only 9.6% continued to comply with them during isolation. Furthermore, of the participants who did not meet the physical activity requirements, 55% showed a significant decrease in physical activity levels.

In response to the confinement due to the pandemic, clinically significant results have been reported regarding the presence of mental health problems such as acute stress and anguish in university students of health sciences area. This phenomenon has been attributed to the fact that students of health sciences area have a greater knowledge of COVID-19 (according to the general population), the risks associated with contracting it, symptoms and its possible social impact, for which may be more susceptible to develop mental health problems during the period of confinement.

In addition to confinement and physical inactivity, instability in the national economy contributes substantially to the genesis of mental health effects, such as fear, stress, and anxiety. The interplay between emotions and eating (referred to as emotional eating) has been addressed before, with evidence that changes in food intake are consistently the primary response during altered mental states.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

280

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Mexico
    • California
      • Tijuana, California, Mexico, 22390
        • Medical and Psychology School

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 25 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Probability Sample

Study Population

325 undergraduate students form the Medical and Phsychology School of the Autonomous University of Baja California will be invited to participate voluntarily.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Health Sciences Students
  • Informed consent sign

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Fail a course by absences
  • No assistance to evaluations

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
In person academic activities group

University students of health sciences area returning to in person academic activities in Mexico.

All university students will return to in person academic activities in March, 2022, for that reason a limitation is that it is no possible to have a control group (Nobody is going to continue in virtual academic activities).
Behavioral: In person academic activities
All participants will perform academic activities in person from March to December, 2022

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Depression
Time Frame: March-December, 2022
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-7)
March-December, 2022
Physical activity
Time Frame: March-December, 2022
International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ, short form)
March-December, 2022
Body fat percentage
Time Frame: March-December, 2022
Air Displacement Plethysmography
March-December, 2022

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Anxiety
Time Frame: March-December, 2022
General Anxiety Disorder 7 Questionnaire (GAD-7)
March-December, 2022
Sleep Quality
Time Frame: March-December, 2022
Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)
March-December, 2022
Body Mass Index
Time Frame: March-December, 2022
Body Weight and Body Mass Evaluation
March-December, 2022
Waist to hip ratio
Time Frame: March-December, 2022
Waist and hip girths
March-December, 2022
Food intake
Time Frame: March-December, 2022
24 hour recalls
March-December, 2022

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Universidad Autonoma de Baja California

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Marco A Hernández-Lepe, Dr., Autonomous University of Baja California

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 14, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 10, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

December 16, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 7, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 7, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

March 16, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 30, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 26, 2024

Last Verified

July 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • UABC2022

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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