Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic in Social Life of Students of Mymensingh Medical College.

Being declared as a worldwide pandemic on 11 March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused its devastating effects on the global economy and people's lives. The study tried to assess the impact of the pandemic on social life of undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. As a cross-sectional and descriptive observational study, undergraduate medical students of different phases (I, II and IV) and Postgraduate medical students of different programs of Mymensingh Medical College were used as its sample. This study enrolled 218 undergraduate and 94 postgraduate students of Mymensingh Medical College. A self-administered semi-structured questionnaire survey was conducted to gather the views of participants on the social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that the COVID-19 pandemic had dramatically altered the long practiced lifestyle of medical students. The pandemic had negatively impacted student's social life. In this study, 153(70.2%) undergraduate and 55(58.5%) postgraduate students reported that their social interaction had decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic; 166(76.1%) undergraduate and 73(77.7%) postgraduate students reported that during COVID-19 pandemic, the frequency of their social interaction with teachers had decreased; 83(38.0%) undergraduate and 29(30.8%) postgraduate students thought that interaction with relatives had decreased during the pandemic; 110(50.4%) undergraduate and 44(46.8%) postgraduate students reported that their social interaction with colleagues had decreased in the pandemic. A total of 133(61.0%) undergraduate and 59(62.7%) postgraduate students reported their shopping behavior on the internet had become more reliant during COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic had a highly adverse impact on the overall social lives of medical students. The results of this study will aid anyone involved in Bangladesh's medical education to gain a detailed understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on social lives of medical students.