Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic state of emergency on occupational justice/injustice and life satisfaction: A cross-sectional survey of medical students in Japan

Abstract

University students, as a group, may have experienced occupational injustice due to restrictions on meaningful occupation imposed by measures such as the state of emergency declarations for COVID-19. However, the relationship between such behavioral restrictions and occupational justice within this group remains unclear. To elucidate this relationship, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey of medical university students. This survey examined occupational justice using the Occupational Justice Questionnaire (OJQ) and life satisfaction like selfcare, leisure, study, and mental health status using General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) during the third declaration of the state of emergency and six months befo re and after the nonemer gency period. The study was car ried out 1 w eek from November 4, 2020 and 1 week from November 5, 2021 during the non-emergency period, and 1 week from April 28, 2021 during the third declaration of the state of emergency in Japan. By comparing the survey periods, we analyzed the impact of behavioral restrictions on these aspects. The results indicate that leisure satisfaction was low during the state of emergency, and that du ring the e arly stages of the p andemic, people's mental he alth deteriorated and may have fallen into a state of occupational marginalization.