O impacto da pandemia de COVID-19 nos estudantes de graduação de biomedicina da Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso

Abstract

With the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictive measures were necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. One of these measures was the closure of educational institutions, which initiated indefinite remote education. Studies have shown that the social isolation caused by the pandemic has affected the students' well-being and mental health. Furthermore, the performance of students in remote learning did not match that in the face-to-face classroom. Thus, the present study evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, performance in remote teaching, course dropout, and socialization in undergraduate students of the Biomedicine course at the Araguaia Campus of the Federal University of Mato Grosso. The sample was composed of 60 students, from the first to the fourth year of the course, with an age range of 18 to 36 years, being 85% female and 15% male students who started the undergraduate course in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. The results of this study were obtained through the data raised by the form that the students filled out online and/or in person. The form was constructed based on pre-existing forms in the literature that address nuances of college life such as academic performance, mental health, pandemic, depression, and anxiety. The results showed that students had a lower academic performance than in the pre-pandemic period and remote learning decreased willingness for academic activity. Likewise, students were found to be more mentally ill. These findings concluded that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the academic performance and mental health of biomedical students at the Federal University of Mato Grosso.