[01] Tah Tze Wei, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [02] Young Xin Yee, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [03] Khirtana Baskaran, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [04] Tharshini Devi Naidu Subramaiam, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [05] Githanjali Partheeban, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the compliance towards the safety measures established are affected by the awareness of provisions, the penalty imposed for breaching MCO rules, the confidence towards government, the support by the government and the severity of influence on economic, and the psychological aspects due to isolation. The mental health of the public is also put under stress due to the numerous propaganda and myths widely spreading in the media. Our study aimed to assess the self-reported compliance and mental health concerns towards the COVID-19 pandemic and find its association with sociodemographic variables among the Malaysian undergraduate students. A cross sectional study was conducted from May to June 2020 in our college, MMMC, Malaysia. Data were collected using an online-administered questionnaire, designed in English which consists of close-ended and multiple-choice questions. The survey items were formulated based on a preprint in Italy with 5 parts, namely 1) demographic profile, 2) self-reported past behaviours, 3) beliefs, perceptions and emotions, 4) future behaviours, and 5) personality battery. Statistical tests (Unpaired t-test and ANOVA) were performed using Epi Info software. Most students are shown to have great compliance towards the safety measures established with a mean score of 87.8. However, there was no significant association between gender, ethnicity, family types, family income and the compliance of MMMC students towards the safety measures of COVID-19. There was a significant association between gender and the mental health concerns where the males had a mean score of 15.2 (SD=3.2), which is slightly lower than females who had a mean score of 16.9 (SD=3.3). However, our study showed no significant association between ethnicity, family types, family incomes and mental health concerns among MMMC students towards COVID-19. These findings thus provide empirical support that the students’ gender plays a significant role in determining the mental health concerns

Compliance, Mental Health, Students, COVID-19

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