Psychological Distress among Health Professional Students during Covid-19 Pandemic.

The Corona virus pandemic has arisen as a truly intimidating threat to the very existence of humankind. Isolation, contact boundaries and economic blackout impose a complete transformation to the psychosocial environment in affected countries. The psychological impairments are significant to the diagnosed cases, suspected cases, quarantine cases, health workers and their families and also relatives. In this unprecedented global crisis situation created by Covid-19, it is very important and critical to recognize the mental shock that can affect people in different ways around the globe. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the levels of Psychological distress among Health Professional students in Bangladesh. Data collection was done through online questionnaire. Participants were asked to complete the socio-demographic data, the 6 item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), acute stress reaction (ASR) using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) scale and any history of bitter experience during childhood, previous psychological illness, internet addiction and relationship with family. By using logistic regression, we examined the associations of the above variables with psychological distress and ASR. Among the 281 respondents, 97(34.52%) students reported high psychological distress, while 123(43.77%) had the criteria for acute stress reaction in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. A total of 39(13.87%) students showed signs of both distress and acute stress reaction. An increased psychological distress was found with previous psychological illness (OR 1.378, 95% CI 0.719-2.642). In contrast, good family functioning was associated with decreased risks of distress (OR 0.385, 95% CI 0.242-0.613) and acute stress reaction (OR 0.812, 95% CI 0.529-1.249). The study result shows that the group which is mostly affected psychologically after the corona virus pandemic are women. Almost one-third respondents had a significant psychological impact. This result suggests us further systematic and longitudinal assessment of psychological needs among the populations. Therefore, in further psychiatric planning priority should be there for this finding.