{"doi":"10.3390/ijerph19159199","title":"Meta-Analysis of Psychological Interventions for Reducing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression among University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic","abstract":"<jats:p>(1) Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of internet-based intervention programs for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting a meta-analysis. (2) Methods: Searches were conducted in the following databases: MEDLINE, EbscoHost Academic Search Ultimate, and PsycArticles, using a combination of “Covid-19 AND ‘Randomized Controlled Trial’ AND students”, as well as a combination of the following search terms: “internet”, “online”, “treat_”, “psycholog_”, “intervention”, “program_”, “stress_”, “depress_”, “anxiety”, “university”, “college”, ”freshm_”, “sophomore_”, and “undergraduat_”. The population, intervention, control, outcomes, and study design (PICOS) framework was used (P (population): university students during the COVID-19 pandemic; I (intervention): internet-based intervention programs for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression; C (control): no intervention, usual care, or on a waiting list; O (outcomes): stress, anxiety, and depression indicators; S (study design): meta-analysis including only randomized controlled trials (RCTs)). A meta-analysis was performed on the 10 retrieved studies published between 2021 and 2022. Only RCTs were analyzed. (3) Results: All 10 analyzed papers revealed a trend in the effectiveness of internet-based intervention for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression in university students during COVID-19. Significant effects from the included RCTs with interventions for reducing stress and depression were established. (4) Conclusions: Psychological internet-based interventions may help to reduce depression and stress among university students; however, more research is needed to determine their effectiveness in reducing anxiety.</jats:p>","journal":"International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health","year":2022,"id":629229,"datarank":0.5333022092234121,"base_score":3.5553480614894135,"endowment":3.5553480614894135,"self_citation_contribution":0.5333022092234121,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5333022092234121,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":34,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":2,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1629469,"name":"Vilija Malinauskiene","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1629468,"name":"Romualdas Malinauskas","orcid":"0000-0001-5578-3100","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Meta-Analysis of Psychological Interventions for Reducing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression among University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic","abstract":"<jats:p>(1) Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of internet-based intervention programs for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting a meta-analysis. (2) Methods: Searches were conducted in the following databases: MEDLINE, EbscoHost Academic Search Ultimate, and PsycArticles, using a combination of “Covid-19 AND ‘Randomized Controlled Trial’ AND students”, as well as a combination of the following search terms: “internet”, “online”, “treat_”, “psycholog_”, “intervention”, “program_”, “stress_”, “depress_”, “anxiety”, “university”, “college”, ”freshm_”, “sophomore_”, and “undergraduat_”. The population, intervention, control, outcomes, and study design (PICOS) framework was used (P (population): university students during the COVID-19 pandemic; I (intervention): internet-based intervention programs for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression; C (control): no intervention, usual care, or on a waiting list; O (outcomes): stress, anxiety, and depression indicators; S (study design): meta-analysis including only randomized controlled trials (RCTs)). A meta-analysis was performed on the 10 retrieved studies published between 2021 and 2022. Only RCTs were analyzed. (3) Results: All 10 analyzed papers revealed a trend in the effectiveness of internet-based intervention for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression in university students during COVID-19. Significant effects from the included RCTs with interventions for reducing stress and depression were established. (4) Conclusions: Psychological internet-based interventions may help to reduce depression and stress among university students; however, more research is needed to determine their effectiveness in reducing anxiety.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":3.5553480614894135,"endowment":3.5553480614894135,"datacite_reuse_total":2,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"35954553","pmcid":"PMC9368492","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4288068723","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":1.461,"citation_percentile":0.78806494,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2022,"count":1},{"year":2023,"count":10},{"year":2024,"count":9},{"year":2025,"count":11},{"year":2026,"count":3}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9199/pdf?version=1658928940","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9199/pdf?version=1658928940","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9199/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159199","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35954553","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/4ac42e56958047ad9c2e72814f0f3d75","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159199","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/9368492","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9368492","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9368492?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["COVID-19 and Mental Health","Digital Mental Health Interventions","Mental Health Research Topics","Anxiety","COVID-19","Depression","Humans","Psychosocial Intervention","Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic","Stress, Psychological","Students"],"mesh_terms":["Psychosocial Intervention","COVID-19","Anxiety","Depression","Humans","Stress, Psychological","Students","Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic"],"keywords":["Anxiety","Psychological intervention","Randomized controlled trial","Meta-analysis","Depression (economics)","Intervention (counseling)","Pandemic","Population","Clinical psychology","Medicine","Research design","Psychology","Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)","Psychiatry","Internal medicine","Environmental health","Stress","Depression","university students","Covid-19"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[{"doi":"10.6084/m9.figshare.27059032.v1","title":"Additional file 1 of Addiction to ultra-processed foods as a mediator between psychological stress and emotional eating during the COVID-19 pandemic","publisher":"figshare","resource_type":"JournalArticle"},{"doi":"10.6084/m9.figshare.27059032","title":"Additional file 1 of Addiction to ultra-processed foods as a mediator between psychological stress and emotional eating during the COVID-19 pandemic","publisher":"figshare","resource_type":"JournalArticle"}],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[{"name":"doi"}],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-05T17:39:34.276066Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}