mental health of pre-clinical medical students in indonesia during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic: a reflection

Background & objective: perceived awareness and concern for mental health issues among students in indonesia are still lacking, proceeding before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic. in order to gain future benefits, this study evaluates pre-clinical medical students’ mental health during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic in indonesia.materials & methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on pre-clinical medical students at the faculty of medicine, universitas islam indonesia (fm uii), yogyakarta, indonesia, in april 2021. a total sampling method was employed. participants completed online self-reported questionnaires, including socio-demographic data and the depression, anxiety, and stress scale-21 (dass-21) questionnaire to evaluate mental health. descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analysis was performed.results: a total of 273 pre-clinical medical students were included in this study. they suffered from depression (35.2%) and stress (40.3%) more than a third and about half suffered from anxiety (50.2%). females were more likely to have depression (aor: 2.22; 95%ci: 1.19 to 4.15), anxiety (2.56; 1.42 to 4.61), and stress (3.44; 1.81 to 6.54) than males. anxiety was less common in medical students in their second (0.48; 0.23 to 0.98) and third (0.29; 0.13 to 0.67) years than in the first year. being a third-year student was a protective factor for stress (0.38; 0.17 to 0.87).conclusion: a high prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among pre-clinical students was observed. this study can become a reflection for educational institutions and policymakers to prepare good strategies to maintain pre-clinical students’ quality and mental health during and after covid-19 pandemic.