The psychological distress of higher education students has decreased

The psychological distress of higher education students has decreased over the past three years, especially among women. The results are based on the Finnish Student Health and Wellbeing Survey (KOTT), which was conducted last spring.

The significant psychological distress experienced by students decreased from 35% to 29% between 2021 and 2024. Psychological distress among women decreased from 40% to 32%.

In the study, psychological distress was measured using the MHI-5 survey, the five questions of which survey anxiety, depression and perceived happiness over the past four weeks.

“The coronavirus pandemic had a negative impact on students’ mental health. Current psychological distress has now decreased compared to the pandemic. This is the first good news on the mental health of young people and young adults in a long time,” says Olli Kiviruusu, Research Manager at THL.

Anxiety disorders and depression diagnosed in health care have increased

23% of women and 10% of men studying at a higher education institution had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder in the past 12 months. Correspondingly, 18% of women and 12% of men had been diagnosed with depression in the past 12 months.

Diagnosed anxiety disorders and depression have become more common among women, but their occurrence has remained at the same level among men.

“The increase in diagnosed diseases may reflect the easier access to mental health services compared to the coronavirus pandemic. There are some signs of easier access to the services,” says Jaana Suvisaari, Research Professor at THL.

Nearly two out of three people who needed mental health services feel that they received them insufficiently

According to the study, 60% of women and 68% of men feel that they have received inadequate mental health services from the FSHS, which provides student health care services for higher education students.

Over the past three years, there have been no major changes in the number of people who were in need of mental health services but received them insufficiently.

“Based on FSHS data, the demand for mental health services has tripled compared to the period before the coronavirus pandemic. The majority of cases prove to be mild or moderate mental health disorders. To respond to the demand, we established a digital mental health clinic for the FSHS and reformed our service model so that students with less severe symptoms are primarily referred to low-threshold treatments. This way, there will be enough resources for more intensive treatment of those with more severe symptoms,” says Teija Kulmala, Medical Director at FSHS.

“The result of the KOTT study may indicate that students would like robust interventions even for mild symptoms. The threshold for seeking help has lowered”, Kulmala says and continues:

“The causes of mental health problems cannot be solved by health care alone. We work closely with higher education institutions and student organisations to provide students with sufficient support from the study community to prevent problems.”

THL will be reporting extensively on the health, wellbeing and service use of higher education students during the autumn

The Finnish Student Health and Wellbeing Survey (KOTT) was conducted in spring 2024. A total of 3,600 students aged 18–34 from universities and universities of applied sciences around Finland participated in the survey.

We now publish the findings on mental health and the adequacy of mental health services as well as on perceived health, functional capacity and inclusion.

The results are available according to gender, age group and higher education sector.

Source

Further information:

Olli Kiviruusu
Research Manager
THL
Tel. +358 29 524 8323
firstname.lastname@thl.fi

Jaana Suvisaari
Research Professor
THL
Tel. +358 29 524 8539
firstname.lastname@thl.fi

Teija Kulmala
Medical Director
Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS)
Tel. +358 41 731 9420
firstname.lastname@yths.fi