Table 1.
Characteristics of included 25 studies.
|
Author (Publication year) |
Participants and setting | Dates of the survey | Sampling method | Sample size(n) | Male students, n (%) | Age, years | Survey method | Anxiety assessment | Prevalence of anxiety (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deng et al. (2020). | University students in 267 cities in China | May 8 to 11,2020 | Snowball sampling | 1607 | 1041 (64.8%) | <18: 20 (1.2%) 18–22:1573 (97.9%) >22:14 (0.9%) |
Online self-administered questionnaire | Anxiety subscale of DASS-21 ≥ 7 | 88(5.5%) |
| Nurunnabi et al. (2020). | University students in Shanxi, Hubei, Beijing, Heilongjiang, and Guangdong. | May 26th to June 3rd, 2020 | Random sampling | 559 | 226 (40.4%) | 18–22:281 (50.27%) 23–27:192 (34.35%) 28–32:66 (11.81%) 33+: 20 (3.58%) |
Online self-administered questionnaire | self-designed questionnaire | 185 (33.1%) |
| Song et al., (2020). | Native Chinese students who are studying at U.S. universities | NR | Snowball sampling | 261 | 122 (46.7%) | ≤19: 132 (50.6%) 20–23: 88 (33.7%) >23: 41 (15.7%) |
Online self-administered questionnaire | Anxiety subscale of DASS-21 > 7 | 129(49.4%) |
| Sun Y et al., (2020) | Nursing students in Zhengzhou, China. | February 15 to March 31, 2020. | Convenience sampling | 474 | 72 (15.2%) | <20: 59 (12.5%) 20–22:275 (58%) >22: 140 (29.5%) |
Online self-administered questionnaire | SAS≥50 | 58 (12.4%) |
| Wu et al. (2021a). | Chinese college students of 16 provinces or Municipalities. | February 4 to 12, 2020 |
Random sampling | 11787 | 5056 (42.9%) | Mean:20.45 SD:1.76 |
Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7 ≥5 | 2098 (17.8%) |
| Xie L et al. (2020). | College students who live outside Hubei and are not infected by COVID-19 | Feb 4, 2020, to Feb 7, 2020 | Random sampling | 2705 | 608 (22.5%) | NR | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥5 | 400(14.8%) |
| Yang K.H et al. (2021). | University students in China | April 2020 to May 2020 | Convenience sampling | 521 | 117 (22.5%) | ≤22: 320 (61.4%) >22: 201 (38.6%) Mean: 22.02 ± 1.761 |
Online self-administered questionnaire | SAS≥50 | 236 (45.3%) |
| Han et al. (2021). | Undergraduates and postgraduates in China | February 22 to 24,2020 | Convenience sampling | 495 | 134 (33.1%) | NR | Online self-administered questionnaire | Anxiety subscale of DASS-21 ≥ 8 | 171 (42.2%) |
| Song et al. (2021). | College students in Anhui Province, China | February 17 to23. 2020. |
Random cluster sampling. | 1128 | 486 (44.0%) | 18–23: 993 (88.0%) 24–27:114 (10.1%) 27: 21 (1.9%) |
Online self-administered questionnaire | SAS≥50 | 95 (8.4%) |
| Jia et al. (2021). | University students in 31 provinces in China | February 2020, | Convenience sampling | 740 | 282 (38.1%) | NR | Online self-administered questionnaire | SAS≥50 | 139 (18.8%) |
| Li et al. (2021a). | 22 universities in Guangdong Province, China. | T1: Feb 3 to 10, 2020 T2: March 24-April 3, 2020 |
Random sampling | T1: 164101 T2: 148343 |
T1: 60456 (36.8%) T2: 55484 (37.4%) |
NR | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥7 | T1: 7,802 (11.4%) T2: 10,125 (14.7%) |
| Fu et al. (2021). | University students from 21 Chinese universities | May 10 to June 10, 2020 | Convenience sampling | 89588 | 39194 (43.7%) | 18-20: 28482 (31.8%) 21-25: 57012 (63.6%) 26-30: 4094 (4.6%) |
Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥5 | 36865(41.1%) |
| Wang et al. (2021). | Students of a university in Xi'an, China | February 13 to 16, 2020 | Stratified sampling | 430 | 139 (32.3%) | Range:18-25 | Online self-administered questionnaire | SAS≥50 | 60 (14.0%) |
| Ma et al. (2020). | College students from 108 colleges and universities in Guangdong Province, China | NR | Convenience sampling | 746217 | 331 613 (44.4%) | <18: 27 640 (3.7%) 18–19: 252616 (33.9%) 20–21: 327639 (43.9%) 22–23: 120142 (16.1%) 24–25: 14925 (2.0%) ⩾26: 3255 (0.4%) |
Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥7 | 11.0% |
| Zhang et al. (2020). | College students in China | February 19 to March 20, 2020, | Convenience sampling | 66 | 25 (37.8%) | Mean (SD): 20.70 (2.11) | Online self-administered questionnaire | Anxiety subscale of DASS21 ≥ 7 | 30(45.5%) |
| Chang et al. (2020a). | College students in Guangdong Province, China | January 31, 2019–February 3, 2020 | Convenience sampling and snowball sampling> | 3881 | 1434 (37.0%) | Mean: 20 | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥6 | 1032 (26.6%) |
| Meng et al. . (2020). | Undergraduates and postgraduates of three universities in Shanghai, China | April 15 to 30, 2020 | Cluster sampling | 1195 | 531 (44.4%) | Range: 17–39 Mean: 21.11 | Online self-administered questionnaire | PANAS | 557(46.6%) |
| Liu J et al. (2020). | Medical students of a university in Wuhan, China | February 23, 2020, to April 2, 2020 | Convenience sampling | 217 | 90 (41.5%) | Range:18–27 Mean:21.7 | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥5 | 48(22.1%) |
| Ge et al. (2020). | Undergraduates in Shandong Province, China | February 10th to 13th, 2020 | Convenience cluster sampling | 2009 | 985 (49.0%) | NR | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥7 | 251 (12.5%) |
| Sun S. F. et al. (2021) | University students in China | March 20th and April 10th, 2020 | Convenience sampling | 1912 | 578 (30.2%) | Median: 20 Range: 18-49 | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7 ≥5 | 664 (34.7%) |
| Li M et al. (2020) | University students in China | March 3–15, 2020 | Convenience sampling | 1676 | 588 (35.1%) | Mean:20.17 | Online self-administered questionnaire | HAI≥15 | 408 (24.3%) |
| Cao et al. (2020). | Undergraduate of a medical university in Changzhi, China | NR | Cluster sampling | 7143 | 2168 (30.4%) | NR | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7 | 1776 (24.9%) |
| Li et al. (2021b). | Undergraduate students of a university in Southwest China | February to March 2020. | Convenience sampling | 7747 | 3947 (50.9%) | Mean: 20.72 | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥5 | 810 (10.5%) |
| Zhou et al. (2020b). | College students in China | March 8 to 15, 2020. | Random sampling | 4099 | 1434 (35.0%) | NR | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥5 | 1112 (27.1%) |
| Feng et al. (2020). | Students of a university in Beijing, China | February 8–28, 2020 | Cluster sampling | 1346 | 364 (27.0%) | Mean:19.69 | Online self-administered questionnaire | GAD-7≥5 | 354 (26.3%) |
Note: NR: Not Reported; SD: Standard Deviation; DASS-21: Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 Items; SAS: Self-Rating Anxiety Scale; GAD-7: Generalized Anxiety Disorder - 7 Items; HAI: The Health Anxiety Inventory; PANAS: Positive And Negative Affect Schedule; In anxiety assessment, the number marked after the scale indicates that the scale score is greater than this number, which is the diagnosis of anxiety.