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The issue of mental health literacy has been widely studied in developed countries, with few studies conducted in Arab countries. In this study we aimed to investigate mental health literacy and attitudes towards psychiatric patients among students of Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate students using a validated Arabic-version questionnaire. A total of 557 students were recruited from different Jazan university colleges. The majority of students (90.3%) have intermediate mental health literacy. Regarding the etiology of mental illness, students agreed that genetic inheritance (45.8%), poor quality of life (65%) and social relationship weakness (73.1%) are the main causes of mental illness. The majority thought that mentally ill people are not capable of true friendships (52.5%) and that anyone can suffer from a mental illness (49.4%). Students' attitudes towards psychiatric patients were mixed, with 68.7% reporting that they could maintain a friendship with a mentally ill person and that people with mental illness should have the same rights as anyone else (82.5%). Mental health literacy among university students was intermediate. There is an urgent need for health educational programs to change the attitudes of students regarding this important health issue.

This study aims to determine depression, anxiety and stress levels of health-care students during coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic according to various socio-demographic variables.

This cross-sectional study was conducted with 933 students. Data were collected with an information form on COVID- 19 and an electronic self-report questionnaire based on depression, anxiety and stress scale.

Findings revealed that 58% of the students experienced moderate-to-extremely severe depression, 39.8% experienced moderate-to-extremely severe anxiety and 38% experienced moderate-to-extremely severe stress.

Educational administrators can help reduce long-term negative effects on students’ education and mental health by enabling online guidance, psychological counseling and webinars for students.

This paper is original and adds to existing knowledge that health-care students’ depression, anxiety and stress levels were affected because of many factors that are not yet fully understood. Therefore, psychological counseling is recommended to reduce the long-term negative effects on the mental health of university students.