COVID-19 pandemic: Mental stress, depression, anxiety among the university students in Bangladesh

On 27 March 2020, the World Health Organization warned that stress, anxiety, and fear would increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation (World Health Organization, 2020). Another research showed that due to COVID-19 crisis, suicide, domestic violence, mental disorders, anxiety, depressive disorders are already increasing worldwide (Sifat, 2020). The lockdown following the unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 has turned people from social to isolated human beings as a means of combating the pandemic. The pandemic impacts have already killed an enormous number of people across the world, and new cases of infected people continue to increase. Health experts estimate that about 300 million people suffer from panic and anxiety disorders and warn that our mental health could be at high risk (Shah, 2020). Isolation and physical distance remain a relatively new phenomenon for many people. Coping with these new life practices and making these habitual for a few unpredictable months is the most challenging task for the freedom-loving people. In midMarch, all educational institutions in Bangladesh declared close to preventing the spread of COVID-19 among students. Since then, uncertainty has flourished in our education sector (Zaman, 2020). More than 3.15 million tertiary students are facing face uncertainty in education because of the closing of educational institutions (Sultana & Ramij, 2020). Technology in the modern world has been an essential resource for this adverse circumstance to move on with our lives and work. Teaching methods online is the best way to reach out to students and to pursue education as before. Like most other sectors, the education sector, with the help of technologies, will continue to operate even during the COVID-19 pandemic without raising the risk of spread. The recent Instructions of the Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission (UGC) ask on all universities to ensure online classes and require private universities to perform online tests following the UGC guidelines (Priyo & Hazra, 2020). Within this regime of global closure of educational institutions, technologically developed countries are provided with all the resources available for online education, the developing countries, including Bangladesh, have yet to implement online education. Despite some drawbacks, public and private universities are promoting online education to save students’ careers by providing better education amid the pandemic. About 55% of students are not currently enabled by proper internet access to pursue online education. Some of the students who shifted from Dhaka to their hometown/village were unable to attend sessions due to weak internet connection and lack of access to devices (Islam et al., 2020). Most of the students have shown a shortage of technical resources, high internet costs, low internet speed, family financial instability, and mental stress on students are the main obstacles to online education in Bangladesh. A group of mental health experts recently stated that anxiety and stress are already affecting people. They surveyed more than 2,000 online participants revealed social isolation was a negative effect of COVID-19, which created feelings of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide (Rahman, 2020). Another research found that staying at home has usually made them depressed mentally. They heard negative news in the media about COVID-19 new cases and death toll. Students who feel mentally stressed refuse to join online classes or are unwilling to participate in online classes. About 43% of students are mentally stressed, anxious, and unable to attend the online class format (Sultana & Ramij, 2020). A nationwide cross-sectional study found that COVID-19 pandemic has imposed threats on the physical and mental health of the adult population of Bangladesh. The research conducted by an online survey showed that 57.5% of undergraduate level students mentally stressed, 30.2% are anxiety disorder, and 58.8% are depressed (Banna et al., 2020). Another web-based cross-sectional survey among 476 university students and the findings found that more than 15% of the students reportedly had moderately severe depression, while 18.1% were severely suffering from anxiety. Also, students who live with families (96.93%) and urban areas (65.05%) have higher depressive symptoms. In the case of COVID-19 pandemic: Mental stress, depression, anxiety among the university students in Bangladesh