Abstract:
Background: Despite the fact that COVID-19 is a 21st century pandemic that poses difficult
challenges in all aspects of human life, it is a pressing issue for young people pursuing higher
education. They were reporting high perceived stress. However, there is a dearth of study had
done on perceived stress and associated factors during COVID-19 pandemic among university
student.
Objective: the aim of this study is to identify perceived stress and its associated factors during
COVID-19 pandemic among regular under graduate students of Jimma University, Jimma,
South west, Ethiopia, November, 2021.
Method: An Institution based cross sectional study design was conducted and multistage
random sampling technique was used to select 779 study participants among Jimma University
regular undergraduate students. The data was gathered by using a structured self-administered
questionnaire. The data was gathered by using a structured self-administered questionnaire.
Perceived stress scale-10-C was used to measure the dependent variable. The
sociodemographic information, psychological factors, Biological factors, and COVID-19
related factors were used as independent variables of this study. The data was entered to
Epidata version 4.6, exported and analyzed by SPSS-25. Then, presented by text, frequency
table and Bar chart and mean and standard deviation were commputed for the descriptive
data. Binary logistic regression was used to identify independent predictors of the outcome
variable. The P-value < 0.05 and 95% CI, were used in multivariate analysis to declare the
presence and strength of the association.
Result: from all participants 33.5% were experienced high perceived stress level. Being female
(AOR=1.66, 95%CI:(1.15-2.40), family history of chronic physical illness (AOR=1.64,
95%CI:(1.14-2.35), Alcohol use (AOR=1.82, 95%CI:(1.20-2.77), low precautionary measures
(AOR=1.93, 95%CI:(1.06-3.51), poor social support (AOR=2.30, 95%CI (1.26-4.19) and low
resilience level (AOR=1.71, 95%CI:(1.02-2.87) were associated in multivariate analysis.
Conclusion and Recommendation: In our study, the prevalence of perceived stress is high as
compared with study done in abroad and factors like being female, family history of chronic
physical illness, alcohol use, poor social support, low resilience and low precautionary
measures were significantly associated. Jimma University administrator have to provide
specific COVID-19 related psychological services for university students.
