The Psychological Well-Being of University Students Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping review, systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

This review aimed to summarise the current evidence relating to university students’ psychological well-being amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. A scoping review, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines, was first conducted to determine if the evidence can be systematically reviewed and meta-analysed. The search was performed via Google Scholar, MEDLINE/PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science. A total of 90 original articles were selected for the scoping review. Meta-analysis of a total of 46,284 cases revealed an overall pooled prevalence rate of 29.1% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 20.9–39.0; K = 9, N = 22357) for anxiety symptoms and 23.2% (95% CI: 15.7–32.9; K = 12, N = 23927) for depression symptoms. This data revealed that COVID-19 had a significant impact on university students’ psychological well-being.

Keywords: Adolescents; Depression; Mental Health; Pandemic; Anxiety; SARS-COV-2.