Online learning: depression, anxiety, stress symptomatology among students of Wah Medical College during covid-19 quarantine

Introduction: The students faced new worries and issues with the discontinuation of on- campus teaching and the change to online education during the COVID-19 quarantine. This significant change had a detrimental effect on their mental health and cognitive functioning. Objectives 1. To assess depression, anxiety stress among medical students during online learning. 2. To determine the association of depression, anxiety stress with gender residential status of the students. Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, done at Wah Medical College in Wah Cantt between December 2020 and May 2021. Data collection was done by Google Forms, using DASS21questionnaire (Cronbach alpha 0.70). The Google form link was shared with all 500 MBBS students through their class WhatsApp groups. Only 180 students submitted the response giving a response rate of 37%. SPSS version 26 was used for data analysis. The descriptive variables were determined as Means Standard Deviation (SD), frequencies percentages. The Chi-square test executed the inferential analyses, with a predetermined alpha (α) 0.05. Results: Male students were 60(33.3 %) and 120(66.6%) were female students. The proportion of rural students was 32 (17.8%) and 148 (82.2%) were urban students. Stress was more reported among the students than anxiety and depression. Gender did not significantly correlate with depression, anxiety, or stress (p-value0.5). Depression was significantly more reported among rural students than urban students (p-value 0.05). Conclusion: In terms of mental health, both male and female students were equally affected by online learning during the quarantine period of COVID-19. Keywords: Anxiety, COVID-19, Depression, e-learning, Medical students, Online learning, Stress.