ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak caused significant global disruption in life in 2020.4 The pandemic became a global shock, especially because it was unprecedented and had effect on almost all aspects of human life -including the health, economic and educational sectors. Following the outbreak of this pandemic, several measures were taken by different authorities to limit the spread of the disease and closing educational institutions was noted to be one of the most effective non-pharmaceutical interventions to curb the spread of the disease.9 This intervention interrupted the learning of more than one billion students in 129 countries around the world.10 Several universities worldwide adopted new methods of teaching. The struggle to adjust to the new method of teaching and the psychological burden of the disease could probably affect the wellbeing and academic performance of the students.
OBJECTIVES: To access the effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown and school closure on the academic and psychosocial wellbeing of full time undergraduate in University of Benin
METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was carried out among 500 students using multi-stage sampling technique. Data was collected using a questionnaire and was analyzed using the International Business Machine – Statistical Package for Scientific Solution (IBM SPSS) version 25.0 software. The association between socio-demographic, knowledge, psychosocial wellbeing and academic performance was analyzed using Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test where applicable. The level of significance was set as p< 0.05. Knowledge was scored in percentage and graded as good and poor. The psychosocial wellbeing of respondents was scored using the 4-point Likert scale. Three components of their psychological wellbeing were assessed –depression, anxiety and stress.The effect of the lockdown on the academic performance of respondents was analyzed with questions assessing their study patterns and the difference in their CGPA before and after the lockdown. Results were presented in form of prose, tables and pie charts.
RESULT: A total of 500 persons consented and participated in this study. The general awareness of COVID-19 was high among the respondents. However, the overall knowledge of the disease among the respondents was poor. Almost all the respondents had good psychosocial wellbeing with majority having no depression 434 (86.8%), anxiety 445 (89.0%) and stress 383 (76.6%). Respondents with mild, moderate and severe depression were 49 (9.8%), 15 (3.0%) and 2 (0.4%) respectively. Those who had mild, moderate and severe anxiety were 45 (9.0%), 8 (1.6%), 2 (0.4%), respectively and those with mild, moderate and severe stress were 86 (17.2%), 23 (4.6%), and 8 (1.6%), respectively. All the respondents opined that the COVID-19 lockdown had some level of impact on their academics with a higher proportion agreeing that the impact was severe 247 (49.4%). Majority of the respondents 327 (65.4%) had no change in CGPA, 77 (15.4%) had a negative change in CGPA and 96 (19.2%) had a positive change in CGPA. However, higher proportion of the respondent opined that COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown was not responsible for the difference in their CGPA.
CONCLUSION: The overall knowledge of COVID-19 among the respondents was poor. The COVID-19 lockdown had a negative effect on the psychosocial wellbeing of a number of respondents. The COVID-19 lockdown had an effect on the academic performance of the respondents to a varying degree.
