TABLE 3.

Mean scores for depression and anxiety among medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020 for the total sample in comparison to the German norm population (Löwe et al., 2010) and medical students at the same medical school in 2014 (Heinen et al., 2017).

		Medical students 2020 during the COVID-pandemic	German norm population (Löwe et al., 2010)	p	d
		n = 887	n = 5,030
PHQ-4 score	M (SD)	3.13 (2.46)	1.76 (2.06)	< 0.001	0.645
PHQ-2 score	M (SD)	1.70 (1.35)	0.94 (1.20)	< 0.001	0.621
GAD-2 score	M (SD)	1.43 (1.43)	0.82 (1.10)	< 0.001	0.528
		Medical students 2020 during the COVID-pandemic	Medical students 2014 (Heinen et al., 2017)	p	d
		n = 887	n = 321
PHQ-4 score	M (SD)	3.13 (2.46)	2.65 (2.20)	< 0.001	0.201
PHQ-2 score	M (SD)	1.70 (1.35)	1.26 (1.12)	< 0.001	0.340
GAD-2 score	M (SD)	1.43 (1.43)	1.40 (1.36)	0.587	0.021

PHQ-4, Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (range 0–12); M, mean; n, frequencies; p, p-value; d, effect size Cohen’s d; PHQ-2, Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (range 0–6); GAD-2, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (range 0–6).

According to Cohen’s (1988) guidelines, we considered d = 0.2 to be a small effect, d = 0.5 as a medium effect, and d = 0.8 as a large effect.

Bold font indicates statistical significance.