Mental stress and osteomuscular symptoms in physiotherapy students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The migration to the remote regime due to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in several changes in students' lives, affecting their physical and mental health. There is no consensus on the relationship between mental stress and musculoskeletal symptoms in physical therapy undergraduate students. Objective: Correlating mental stress with musculoskeletal symptoms in physical therapy undergraduate students in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This is an analytical cross-sectional study conducted in a virtual environment with 116 physical therapy undergraduates from any region of Brazil, attending exclusively remote academic activities. A sociodemographic and academic profile questionnaire, the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) were applied. Pearson's correlation was applied to assess the relationship between the number of body regions with musculoskeletal symptoms and perceived stress. Results: Most students were female (83.6%), with a mean age of 23.17 ± 5.37 years. Almost all (94.0%) reported musculoskeletal symptoms in at least one region of the body, and the most affected sites were the neck (69.0%), upper back (62.1%) and shoulders (59.9%). The students had a mean score of 3.99 ± 2.23 body regions with musculoskeletal symptoms on the QNSO; and 24.47 ± 6.79 on the PSS-10. There was a weak positive correlation between the number of musculoskeletal symptoms and stress (r = 0.35; p < 0.001). Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in physical therapy undergraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a relationship was found between the number of musculoskeletal symptoms and mental stress.