Umeå University's first-semester students on undergraduate programmes have received the initial survey for the "World Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) Initiative" as of spring 2021. The following results apply to the fall semester 2021 and spring semester 2022.
Low but "normal" response rate
The number of respondents has generally been higher during autumn semesters compared to spring semesters, which of course is partly due to a larger number of programmes start in autumn than in spring. For Umeå University, the response rate was almost the same for the autumn semester 2021 and the spring semester 2022 (>15%). Our students had a higher response rate than the average values for all Swedish universities, which was 13.7% for the autumn semester 2021 and 11.1% for the spring semester 2022.
The response frequencies may appear to be low. However, compared to the other participating countries in the WMH-ICS study, Sweden's results were at an average level. Experience from the project shows that the response rate increases when the university "announces" the survey a couple of days before sending it out. At Umeå University, we have been consequent in sending out an information email to the participating students about a week before they receive the survey, which seems to have had an impact on the response rate. We also believe that when those responsible for the programmes concerned have posted an informational text in Canvas, it has further contributed to Umeå University's response rate being the third highest among the participating Swedish universities during the semesters in question.
The freshman students were doing well physically
In the questionnaire, the students were asked to rate their physical health on a five-point scale from excellent (1) to poor (5). This means that the lower number a student chose, the better physical health they perceived they had.
The average values for all the universities in terms of students' physical health were around 2.8, which means between very good (2) and good (3), both in the autumn semester 2021 and the spring semester 2022. For both semesters, the average values for Umeå University's students were very close to the average for all universities.
Their mental health was more average
During both semesters, the university's students indicated that their mental health was slightly worse than their physical health, using the same five-point scale as for their physical health. In autumn 2021, Umeå University's students estimated their mental health to be slightly worse than the average for all the Swedish universities. In the spring semester 2022, Umeå students' self-estimated mental health was almost the same as the average for all universities.
Analyses and feedback of results
Currently, 13,822 students have participated in the survey in Sweden since the start in 2020. With increasing numbers of participants, it's starting to become possible to carry out analyses of subgroups where the number of respondents per survey occasion is too few to carry out statistical analyses. The national project management will initially analyse the material on a university-wide level, for example main educational focus such as humanities, social sciences, or medicine. As additional data gets collected from participating universities, the national project management hope to be able to carry out analyses at university, faculty, and department level. During the year, the project management has also started a collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Sweden regarding the WMH-ICS study, which means that they will also analyse information about what programme the students are studying and whether their mental health affects their academic performance.
Continued steps in the project
New for autumn 2022 is the start of the project phase which concerns giving students the opportunity to participate in internet-based treatment studies. Umeå University students are involved in the project as follows:
- As before, all our first-semester undergraduate programme students will be invited to complete the WHO-WMH-ICS questionnaire. The invitation to the survey is scheduled to be sent out on November 15. As during previous semesters, we kindly ask for your help in posting information in Canvas on beforehand.
- Our second-semester students who answered the entire questionnaire during their first semester of study, will receive an invitation to the treatment study. The national project management contacted this group in early September with information that the students would be invited to the treatment study. The students were drawn to receive either guided treatment, non-guided treatment, or to be placed on a waiting list to be offered non-guided treatment starting in March 2023. Those drawn to receive guided or non-guided treatment in the fall of 2022 will be able to start the treatment during the second half of October.
- Our third-semester students who answered the initial survey during their first semester of study, will receive an invitation to a follow-up survey. This is handled by the national project management, who plan to send out the invitation to the follow-up survey at the end of November.