University students’ mental health amidst the COVID-19 quarantine in Greece
Open accessAbstract
The COVID-19 hit also Greece but due to early measures and their exceptional success, the death toll is one of the lowest in the world. Here we report the results from the analysis of the responses to an online survey, from the first 1000 university students, concerning the impact of the lockdown on their mental health. Overall, there was a 'horizontal' increase in scores; 42.5% for anxiety, 74.3% for depression, and 63.3% increase in total suicidal thoughts. Quantity of sleep increased in 66.3% but quality worsened in 43.0%. Quality of life worsened in 57.0% (same in 27.9%). There was a 25-3 fold increase in possible clinical cases of depression and an almost 8-fold increase in suicidal thoughts. Almost a third accept and one fifth are open to conspiracy theories concerning COVID-19. To our knowledge this is the first study reporting data concerning the impact of lockdown and quarantine on the mental health of university students. While the acute impact seems clear, the long-term consequences are unknown and although suicidal thoughts have risen substantially, it seems unlikely this will result in deaths. However, the results constitute a clear message that vulnerable populations are at a need for specific interventions concerning their mental health issues.
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Various studies have drawn attention to the need to implement specific interventions with vulnerable populations to prevent detrimental effects on their mental health.
“Hence, various studies have drawn attention to the need to implement specific interventions with these vulnerable populations, as a way of preventing detrimental effects on their mental health (Kaparounaki et al., 2020; Luykx et al., 2020).”
From Feasibility of a Brief Online Mindfulness and Compassion-Based Intervention to Promote Mental Health Among University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as Kaparounaki et al., 2020
The high anxiety and stress levels found in university students during the COVID-19 lockdown are consistent with other studies in Spain and worldwide.
“Results from our study regarding the high levels of anxiety and stress in university students during the COVID-19 lockdown are in line with other studies carried out at the same time in the university population in Spain (Odriozola-González et al., 2020), as well as in other countries worldwide (Cao et al., 2020; Kaparounaki et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020).”
From Feasibility of a Brief Online Mindfulness and Compassion-Based Intervention to Promote Mental Health Among University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as Kaparounaki et al., 2020
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- Authors
- Kaparounaki, C. K., Patsali, M. E., Mousa, D.-P. V., Papadopoulou, E. V. K., Papadopoulou, K. K. K., & Fountoulakis, K. N.
- Affiliations
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR)
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-08
- Volume
- 290
- Pages
- 113111
- ISSN
- 0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7236729
- OpenAlex
- W3024880232
- Cited by
- 574
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 136 · 2022: 146 · 2021: 176 · 2020: 36
- FWCI
- 49.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Keywords
- COVID-19 lockdown, quarantine, university students, mental health, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, sleep quality, quality of life, conspiracy theories, Greece
- MeSH terms
- Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adult, Anxiety, Depression, Female, Greece, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Pneumonia, Viral, Quality of Life, Quarantine, Surveys and Questionnaires, Sleep, Students, Universities, Coronavirus Infections, Pandemics, Suicidal Ideation
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