Abstract
Background: In addition to its direct mortality and morbidity, it has been reported that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can negatively impact psychological well-being of some populations. This systematic review aimed to summarize data pertaining to African universities students’ mental health during this pandemic.
Methods: PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE and African Journals Online (AJOL) were systematically searched up to July 24, other to retrieve observational studies realized during the COVID-19 pandemic, and which assessed any mental health condition (notably depression, anxiety and stress) among students from African universities. Risk of bias appraisal of included studies was performed using the tool conceived by Hoy and colleagues. Results were presented as narrative, graphical and tabular summaries.
Results: A total of 12 studies were included for a sample size of 7,293 university students spread over seven countries. The overall quality of finally retained studies was moderate, and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21-items (DASS-21) was used in 50% of these studies. We found that the prevalence of depression varied from 21.3% to 78%, with the frequency of severe depression prevalence ranged from 9.7% to 31.5%. We found that the prevalence of all anxiety levels (at least mild) ranged from 27.1% to 64.5%, with a frequency of severe anxiety going from 9.4% to 29.9%. The prevalence of mild to severe stress varied between 22.2% and 47.8%, with severe cases frequencies varying between 12.8% and 17.5%. The most reported factors associated with depression/ anxiety/ stress were poor social support, low economic status and female gender.
Conclusion: Despite limited by the unrepresentativeness of some African regions, and the heterogeneity regarding the tool(s) used to assess outcomes of interest, this systematic review showed high rates of depression, anxiety and stress among African universities’ students during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Keywords: COVID-19, Mental health, Universities’ Students, Africa
Other: This review received no funding and is registered in the prospective register of ongoing systematic reviews (PROSPERO). The registration number is CRD42021269772.