Anxiety, depression and perceived stress among nursing students and their family members in the post-COVID-19 setting: a cross-sectional study in Barranquilla, Colombia

Introduction: During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression rose by about 25%, with women and young people most affected. Now that the emergency phase is over, it is necessary to know the mental health status of university students' families, a group that is rarely measured directly. Objective: To describe the levels of anxiety, depression and perceived stress among nursing students and their family members, and to explore their relationship with age, gender, socioeconomic stratum and religion. Methods: Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study with non-probability convenience sampling. Thirty-nine people aged 17 to 79 took part: third-semester nursing students at Universidad Metropolitana de Barranquilla and their family members. The GAD-7, the PHQ-9 and the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) were administered. Associations were tested with the chi-square test and, because of the small cell counts, with an exact test estimated by Monte Carlo simulation.Results: Of the participants, 67% were women, 31% were aged 17 to 25, 49% belonged to socioeconomic stratum 2 and 87% were Catholic. Absence of symptoms and mild levels predominated. Mild anxiety was the most frequent category among those aged 17 to 25 (66.7%), and 25% of those aged 44 to 52 had severe anxiety. The chi-square test suggested an association between age and anxiety (p = 0.046), but the exact test did not confirm it (p = 0.080). No other variable was significantly associated with anxiety, depression or stress. Conclusions: Participants mostly showed mild or no symptoms, with no significant differences by sociodemographic variables. The cross-sectional design and the sample size do not allow these levels to be attributed to the pandemic, but the cases of severe anxiety and moderately severe depression among middle-aged family members warrant follow-up of family mental health in the post-pandemic period.