Perceived Stress and Associated Factors during Covid-19 Pandemic Among Regular under Graduate Students of Jimma University, Jimma, South West, Ethiopia, 2021.

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.