The effects of social isolation measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic on education perception, anxiety, sleep, and physical activity in healthcare students

Backround: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) emerged at the end of 2019 and has since affected Türkiye as well as the rest of the World. The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of social isolation measures during the COVID-19 epidemic on education perceptions, anxiety levels, sleep quality, and physical activity levels of healthcare students, as well as the relationship between anxiety with sleep quality and physical activity level. Subjects and Methods: The cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted between May and June 2020. The sample consisted of 457 physiotherapy, nursing, and occupational therapy students aged 18-41. Before to starting the survey, electronic consent was obtained from all participants. The data were collected through the Google Forms web survey platform using the convenience sampling method. The demographic information form, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory, and Rapid Assessment of Physical Activity were used to collect data. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows 22 (IBM SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL) at a significance level of 0.05. Results: The majority of students expressed concerns regarding the insufficiency of distance education (82.5%). Over half (53.39%) of the study participants reported experiencing mild, moderate, and severe anxiety. In addition, students exhibited poor sleep quality (67.5%) and low levels of physical activity (61.1%). A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the total scores of the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (r = 0.425, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Healthcare students were concerned about distance education during the first wave of the pandemic. Universities should provide all students with guidance on mental health and encourage them to perform more physical activity. Moreover, different methods and techniques should be developed for applied science during distance education.