Predictors of interdependent happiness among health science students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

There are limited studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of Filipino health science students, mainly those correlating a unique culturally related construct, such as interdependent happiness (IDH), to physiologic, health, and psychosocial factors. Cross-sectional data were collected to investigate the factors predicting the IDH of students at a private university during the COVID-19 pandemic. A seven-part online survey was completed by 180 respondents using convenience sampling. There was no evidence of multicollinearity issues in any of the independent variables. The findings revealed that 100% of respondents had poor sleep quality, a morning chronotype, and better eating habits. The majority (81%) had low levels of physical activity, low levels of social support (60%), and average levels of IDH (36.1%). Bivariate analyses revealed that sleep quality and chronotype were negatively associated with IDH. Dietary habits and social support were found to have a moderately positive relationship with IDH. Physical activity was not found to be significantly related to IDH. Regression analysis revealed three variables significantly associated with IDH: sleep quality, dietary habits, and social support. When age, gender, college, year level, family income, body mass index, and grade point average were all considered, there were no significant differences in the IDH of health science students. This study shows that sleep quality, dietary habits, and social support all predict IDH and should be considered when managing the psychological impact of COVID-19 or any future pandemics among students.