TY - JOUR

T1 - Predictors of well-being, future anxiety, and multiple recurrent health complaints among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic

T2 - the role of socioeconomic determinants, sense of coherence, and digital health literacy. An Italian cross-sectional study

AU - Lorini, Chiara

AU - Cavallo, Giuseppe

AU - Vettori, Virginia

AU - Buscemi, Primo

AU - Ciardi, Giulia

AU - Zanobini, Patrizio

AU - Okan, Orkan

AU - Dadaczynski, Kevin

AU - Lastrucci, Vieri

AU - Bonaccorsi, Guglielmo

N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2023 Lorini, Cavallo, Vettori, Buscemi, Ciardi, Zanobini, Okan, Dadaczynski, Lastrucci and Bonaccorsi.

PY - 2023/9/20

Y1 - 2023/9/20

N2 - The pandemic deeply changed young adults’ life. Lockdown period and the social restrictions dramatically affected university students’ mental health. The aim of our cross-sectional study was to describe psychological well-being, future anxiety (FA), and health complaints (HCs) in a sample of 3,001 students of the University of Florence in the middle of the first two pandemic waves. We assessed the role of subjective social status, chronic diseases, sense of coherence (SoC), and digital health literacy (DHL) as predictors of psychological well-being, FA, and HCs. Students expressed high levels of FA and reported being disturbed by not being able to achieve their desired future goals. About 40% reported a low or a very low well-being and 19.1% experienced two or more subjective health complaints more than once a week. The likelihood of having a better mental health status significantly increased with increasing SoC and among males. Subjective Social Status proved to be a predictor for FA. Enhancing SoC could improve the health status of the university students during the pandemic and beyond.

AB - The pandemic deeply changed young adults’ life. Lockdown period and the social restrictions dramatically affected university students’ mental health. The aim of our cross-sectional study was to describe psychological well-being, future anxiety (FA), and health complaints (HCs) in a sample of 3,001 students of the University of Florence in the middle of the first two pandemic waves. We assessed the role of subjective social status, chronic diseases, sense of coherence (SoC), and digital health literacy (DHL) as predictors of psychological well-being, FA, and HCs. Students expressed high levels of FA and reported being disturbed by not being able to achieve their desired future goals. About 40% reported a low or a very low well-being and 19.1% experienced two or more subjective health complaints more than once a week. The likelihood of having a better mental health status significantly increased with increasing SoC and among males. Subjective Social Status proved to be a predictor for FA. Enhancing SoC could improve the health status of the university students during the pandemic and beyond.

KW - cross-sectional study

KW - psychological determinants

KW - SOC

KW - socioeconomic determinants

KW - university students

KW - well-being

KW - Health sciences

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173346961&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/5fe4d990-df2e-377f-81a3-82073e9b08bf/

U2 - 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1210327

DO - 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1210327

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 37799148

AN - SCOPUS:85173346961

VL - 11

JO - Frontiers in Public Health

JF - Frontiers in Public Health

SN - 2296-2565

M1 - 1210327

ER -