Medical Press: College students in declining mental, physical health one year into COVID-19, study shows

From The Medical Press  Following research about college students from before COVID-19 with a survey at the pandemic’s Year I mark, an international team of scientists detected no improvement in the students’ mental well-being even after the introduction of vaccines and the easing of social distancing methods, let alone a return to campuses in many instances. In fact, the researchers in spring 2021 found marked declines in both physical and emotional health—students sustained a 35% decline in their number of daily steps and a 36% increase in the number at risk of clinical depression, or roughly half of the total students surveyed. “We were surprised when the data showed us that some of the initial disruptions to lifestyle and mental health that occurred in the spring of 2020 persisted through spring 2021 while restrictions were being lifted” said Osea Giuntella, an expert in labor and health economics and an assistant professor in the Department of Economics in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences. Read the full story in the Medical Press.