The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university students

Introduction/Objective. Our study aims to investigate the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on dyspnea, exercise capacity and mood in university students. Method. A total of 120 university students were included in this prospective study. The students' scores of desire to exercise, hopelessness (Beck Hopelessness Scale), fatigue severity (Fatigue Severity Scale), shortness of breath (Modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) Dyspnea Scale), and pain (Visual Analogue Scale) before and after the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic were determined using scales, face-to-face and online surveys. The Shapiro-Wilk, Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon Signed Rank test and the chi-square tests were used. In the data analysis, a p-value of less than .05 was considered statistically significant. Results. A total of 120 subjects were included in the study, 95 of whom (79.2%) identified as female. The mean age of the participants was 22.8±5.3 (18-45) years. It was observed that the scores for hopelessness, shortness of breath, pain, and fatigue in the group with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection increased significantly (p<0.05) compared to the pre-pandemic period. Conversely, the desire to exercise exhibited a notable decline (p<0.05). Conclusion. In university students, increased hopelessness, fatigue, shortness of breath and decreased desire to exercise after the COVID-19 pandemic may have developed secondary to post-COVID syndrome and immobility due to lockdown.