Saúde mental na graduação: impacto do período acadêmico sobre fatores biopsicossociais e a variabilidade da frequência cardíaca

Abstract

Mental health can be considered a state of well-being, composed of individual, biological, social, and environmental factors. Within the university setting, the prevalence of mental disorders is increasingly high, impacting academic performance and increasing dropout rates. Imbalances between emotional, cognitive, and behavioral factors can affect an individual's well-being, impacting overall health. Physiological adaptations can reflect changes related to biopsychosocial aspects. This study aimed to investigate biopsychosocial factors and heart rate variability throughout different stages of the academic journey. This research followed an observational, exploratory, and cross-sectional design, with a sample of 100 individuals, of whom 67% were female. Sociodemographic data were recorded, along with questionnaires and scales that assessed aspects such as quality of life, levels of anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms, mental distress, sleep quality, fatigue, and interoceptive awareness, in addition to the physiological measure of heart rate variability. University students presented lower scores in some aspects related to general well-being when compared to other populations. Students in the early stages of their academic trajectory presented higher scores of stress-related symptoms, greater mental distress, and increased physical and emotional fatigue, as well as differences in heart rate variability measures that reflect alterations in autonomic activity. These findings suggest that institutional screening and support strategies tailored to this population may contribute substantially, particularly for freshman students, who exhibited greater psychophysiological vulnerability. The integrated analysis of psychometric and physiological measures suggested that components of well-being are related to autonomic parameters such as heart rate variability, reflecting the interaction between emotional processes and physiological regulation.