Self-Reported Health Effects of Cashless Economic Policy Among Undergraduate Students of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria
- 1Department of Community Medicine, University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria
- 2Depertment of Community Medicine, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medical Sciences, University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria
- 3Department of Community Medicine, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Cross River State, Nigeria
Abstract
Context: Economic policy transitions can produce unintended public-health consequences when implementation outpaces social, financial and technological readiness. Undergraduates, just like others citizens of the country had their share of “shock” and challenges. They adopted several coping mechanisms just not to allow the new cashless policy disrupt their learning processes.
Objective: This study assessed the self-reported health effects of cashless economic policy among undergraduate students of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
Methods and materials: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted. Multistage sampling was used to select 427 consenting participants for the study. Semi-structured self-administered pretested questionnaire were used for data collection.
Results: The respondents had a mean age of 22.46 ± 3.88 years; Most, (73.5%) of the respondents were aged 20–29 years, and 57.8% were males. Although knowledge of cashless economic policy was generally high, with 68.4% of the respondents reporting good knowledge, self-reported health effects were common. Psychological stress was the most frequently reported effect (69.7%), followed by headache (63.0%), anxiety (43.3%), sleeplessness (36.1%) and depression-related symptoms (35.3%). Among the 236 students who reported health effects, 46.1% described them as mild, 39.9% as moderate and 14.0% as severe. Most students did nothing to manage these effects (67.8%), while 22.4% used drugs obtained from pharmacists or chemists.
Conclusion: The findings show that cashless policy transitions may create measurable stress-related and somatic burdens among students when payment infrastructure, liquidity access and support services are inadequate. There should be health-sensitive implementation of financial digitization policies by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
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BibTeX
@article{akpet2026selfreported,
title = {{Self-Reported Health Effects of Cashless Economic Policy Among Undergraduate Students of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria}},
author = {Akpet OE and Mpama EA and Umoren ES and Ukpepi IU and Ukwueze KO and Ujong BI},
journal = {Ibom Medical Journal},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.61386/imj.v19i4.1374},
url = {https://doi.org/10.61386/imj.v19i4.1374},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Self-Reported Health Effects of Cashless Economic Policy Among Undergraduate Students of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria
AU - Akpet OE
AU - Mpama EA
AU - Umoren ES
AU - Ukpepi IU
AU - Ukwueze KO
AU - Ujong BI
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Ibom Medical Journal
DO - 10.61386/imj.v19i4.1374
UR - https://doi.org/10.61386/imj.v19i4.1374
AB - Context: Economic policy transitions can produce unintended public-health consequences when implementation outpaces social, financial and technological readiness. Undergraduates, just like others citizens of the country had their share of “shock” and challenges. They adopted several coping mechanisms just not to allow the new cashless policy disrupt their learning processes. Objective: This study assessed the self-reported health effects of cashless economic policy among undergraduate students of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. Methods and materials: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted. Multistage sampling was used to select 427 consenting participants for the study. Semi-structured self-administered pretested questionnaire were used for data collection. Results: The respondents had a mean age of 22.46 ± 3.88 years; Most, (73.5%) of the respondents were aged 20–29 years, and 57.8% were males. Although knowledge of cashless economic policy was generally high, with 68.4% of the respondents reporting good knowledge, self-reported health effects were common. Psychological stress was the most frequently reported effect (69.7%), followed by headache (63.0%), anxiety (43.3%), sleeplessness (36.1%) and depression-related symptoms (35.3%). Among the 236 students who reported health effects, 46.1% described them as mild, 39.9% as moderate and 14.0% as severe. Most students did nothing to manage these effects (67.8%), while 22.4% used drugs obtained from pharmacists or chemists. Conclusion: The findings show that cashless policy transitions may create measurable stress-related and somatic burdens among students when payment infrastructure, liquidity access and support services are inadequate. There should be health-sensitive implementation of financial digitization policies by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
SN - 1597-7188
SN - 2735-9964
ER -