Students’ health and health behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland
Abstract
The Corona pandemic is impacting all age groups and areas of society, irrespective of the risk of exposure or disease severity. University students were confronted with abrupt changes by the COVID-19 lock-down both in their personal and academic lives. The “Health in Students during the Corona pandemic” study (HES-C) investigated the impact on mental health and general and COVID-19 related health behaviors, concerns and views from the April 2020 to June 2021. The study covers three pandemic university semesters with a total of nine surveys. The surveys reached roughly 70% of the student population at the University of Applied Sciences Zürich at least once and provides both cross-sectional as well as longitudinal data on mental health outcomes across the pandemic among other outcomes. The talk will mainly focus on the mental health of students, but will also touch on other health related aspects during the pandemic.
Bio
Prof. Dr. med. Julia Dratva, MPH
Julia Dratva is a specialist in prevention and public health (FMH) and professor of public health at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. There, she heads the research area Health Sciences at the Department of Health (https://www.zhaw.ch/en/about-us/person/drat/). She is also an associated professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Basel, President of the Swiss Society of Public Health Physicians (FMH) and Vice President of the EUPHA Child and Adolescent Public Health Section. In addition to her research focus on “Children and Adolescent Public Health”, she has a profound expertise in health monitoring and observational cohort studies.