(PS6-C54) Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Psychological Distress Among Medical and Allied Health Care Graduate Students

Objective: The COVID pandemic resulted in significant medical and behavioral health consequences, particularly in New York City, which was for a time the epicenter. These consequences have been studied in the general population, undergraduate populations, and first responders. This study sought to evaluate the presence and potential predictors of generalized anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress among medical and health science graduate students in New York City during the pandemic.

Method: The study included 292 medical/health science graduate students who completed a survey that included: demographic data, adverse life events directly related to COVID-10 (i.e., hospitalization or loss of family or close friends due to COVID-19), job loss or furlough of immediate family member(s) due to COVID-19, indirect exposure to traumatic events through media engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and psychological impact (i.e., Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Primary Care PTSD-5; and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale [DERS]). A series of forward entered hierarchical regressions were used to allow sequential entry of variables based on strength of relationships and not a-priori assumptions.

Results: In terms of psychological distress, 35% of the responders met criteria for mild anxiety on the GAD-7, while 10% met criteria for moderate anxiety and 9% met criteria for severe anxiety (46% were below diagnostic threshold). In addition, 28% met criteria for mild depression on the PHQ-9, while 12% met criteria for moderate depression, 3.5% met criteria for moderately severe depression and 3.5% met criteria for severe depression (53% were below diagnostic threshold). Finally, 26% met criteria for probable PTSD on the PC-PTSD-5, with 74% remaining below threshold.

Regression analysis indicated that the most substantial predictor of psychological distress was difficulties in emotion regulation (DERS), significantly more than exposure to serious COVID-19 related life events. Students in direct medical care professions and those in allied health professions not providing direct medical care were equally likely to experience psychological distress. Media engagement with respect to symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder explained just 1% of the variance, and other life event variables (family hospitalization, family death, family member loss of job) were not significant predictors of distress. The results of hierarchical regressions indicated that that the DERS was by far the most significant predictor of psychological distress, explaining 43% of the variance in depression, 32% in anxiety, and 27% in posttraumatic stress.

Conclusions: Given the high levels of psychological distress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and given the considerable possibility of future pandemic or endemic medical crises, in the future, institutions of higher education may consider psychoeducational efforts as part of the professional training of medical and health care graduate students to better respond to personal stress reactions and support necessary behavioral functioning when presented with the intensive emotional experiences associated with serious public health crises.