Despite the medical advances of vaccines that have allowed for public spaces to reopen and for people to resume a sense of normalcy, a new study found that college students’ mental and physical health hasn’t rebounded.
A group of international scientists conducted a study on students attending the University of Pittsburgh from spring 2019 through spring 2021 and their results, published on Thursday, showed persistent impacts of the pandemic on physical activity and mental health.
One year into the pandemic, researchers found that students’ daily steps decreased 35 percent, averaging about 6,300 per day compared to about 9,800 per day prior to the pandemic. Almost half of the student participants were at risk of clinical depression compared to a little over one-third prior to the pandemic, a 36 percent increase.
