Transfer of mental health services for medical students to cyberspace during the Covid-19 pandemic: service use and students’ preferences for psychological self-help techniques (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The high risk for mental health problems among medical students has been compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic which greatly reduced formal and informal social contacts. In order to help students, the mental health support service of the medical school of one Hungarian university was not only transferred to the online learning management system but was expanded by self-help materials in three domains: improving study skills, stress management techniques, and reducing stress related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Separate portals were developed for medical students at Hungarian and English courses. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to investigate the pattern of access to the online self-help materials among medical students and the characteristics of those who used the portals. METHODS Access to the online materials between April 2020-April 2021 among Hungarian and international medical students was analyzed using the logging data of the system. RESULTS 15% (n=458) of medical students entered the portal. Women were more likely to visit the site than men among both Hungarian (female: 72%) and international students (female: 59%). Fifth-year students (27%) among Hungarians and first-year students (24%) among internationals comprised the largest proportion of visitors. Of all students who logged in at any time during the examined period, 36.6– 40.4% viewed materials for improving study skills, 23-29% viewed stress management materials of which short-duration techniques in audio format were preferred. The access rate of content targeting coping with mental health effects of Covid-19 was 9.5-24%. CONCLUSIONS The pattern of access can be used for the development of interventions that are of most interest to medical students. Support to improve study skills and brief stress management techniques were the most preferred types of self-help materials.