The association between intolerance of uncertainty from COVID-19 and mindfulness with mental health in nursing students: A cross-sectional study

Abstract Aim To examine the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty caused by COVID-19 and mindfulness with mental health in nursing students after vaccination and the reopening of universities. Background To control the COVID-19 pandemic, various strategies such as maintaining social distancing and lockdown were implemented in educational centers and different communities. Fluctuations caused by the change in the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic and the change in the adopted strategies made students vulnerable to stress, anxiety and maladaptive reactions and caused long-term symptoms of post-traumatic stress, confusion and anger in different groups of students. Design: This research was a cross-sectional correlational descriptive study that was conducted from December to March 2022 on 199 nursing undergraduate students in an online questionnaire survey in Iran. Methods Sampling was done based on the determined inclusion criteria. Demographic information questionnaire, general health questionnaire, intolerance of uncertainty and mindfulness questionnaire were used to collect data. The assessment tools chosen are both valid and reliable. To test the normality of quantitative variables descriptive indices were used. ANOVA and linear regression were used to analyze the data. Data analysis was done using SPSS16 software at a significance level of 0.05. Results The average age of the students was 21.98 ± 2.57 years. 55.8% of the participants were female and the majority of the participants (40.2%) were in the third year of their education. Most of the students suffered from the intolerance of uncertainty caused by COVID-19 and their mental health was affected, so that there was a significant and direct relationship between these two study variables. According to the demographic variables, there was a significant relationship between the score of intolerance of uncertainty and the income status of the family (P = 0.046); and with increasing income, the intolerance of uncertainty score’s decreased (r=-0.154). There was a significant and reverse relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and mindfulness, and there was a significant and reverse relationship between mindfulness and mental health score. Conclusion The students’ mental health was significantly affected, both those who were confident about the onset of a new wave of COVID-19 and those who were uncertain and had returned to university, compared to those who had optimistic and mindful attitudes. Mindful attention as a moderator can influence the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and mental health.