OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic led to Korean government to enforce the social distancing policy as an effective prevention. Due to this policy, universities transited to online learning and most university students had to face subsequent changes in their daily life such as the delay or cancellation of mid-term or final exam. We aimed to investigate the relationship between the perception on COVID-19 social distancing and its affected factors and to visualize COVID-19 social distancing-related discussion in Korea.

METHODS: An online survey was performed in 2020 using an online platform (healthbit.com). Data of 1276 undergraduate students aged above 18 years were collected. Five affected factors include social network, exercise, access to health services, underlying diseases, and education. Perception on COVID-19 social distancing includes beneficial perception, depression/anxiety, stress, and quality of life. The multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between the perception on social distancing and five affected factors. Word cloud and sentiment analyses were performed to visualize the thoughts of social distancing.

RESULTS: Of the respondents, the mean age was 22 years and 59% were female. The negative impact on social network was significantly related to answering that COVID-19 social distancing was not beneficial, feeling depressed/anxious, increased level of stress, and decreased level of quality of life. Female and negative change in exercise pattern was also associated with feeling depressed/anxious. Furthermore, the results of word cloud and sentimental analysis were linked to our findings of logistic regression in that majority of students had negative perceptions in social distancing.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide insights into the factors affecting negative perceptions on social distancing and COVID-19. This study suggested that policymakers and education institutions should consider making the policy to balance social distancing and appropriate social life while minimizing infection.