Depression, anxiety, and psychological distress in Vietnamese pharmacy and non-pharmacy students during COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundGlobally, the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a devastating psychological impact on people, especially the healthcare workers/students, in many different community settings. Limited research has been reported on the mental health issue of healthcare students in Vietnam. ObjectivesThis study investigated and quantified depression, anxiety, and psychological distress levels among healthcare students, with an emphasis on comparing those studying pharmacy to students in other healthcare-related disciplines, in Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic. MethodsA cross-sectional study recruited 2246 respondents between September 7 and October 7, 2021, in which 230 were pharmacy students with a mean age of 20.0 +/- 1.6 years and most of them had a low COVID-19 fear level. The standardized Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) scale, consisting of two subscales of PHQ-2 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2), was utilized for the screening of depression and anxiety levels. ResultsPharmacy students scored significantly higher on the PHQ-4 psychological distress measure than non-pharmacy students (mean 2.23 vs. 1.90, p = 0.039). Compared to non-pharmacy students, pharmacy students had higher rates of anxiety (10.4% vs. 6.5%, p = 0.028). ConclusionThe prevalence of anxiety was higher among pharmacy students in comparison to non-pharmacy students. These findings present a need to recognize and conduct early intervention measures for mental health problems in healthcare students, especially pharmacy students, during recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.