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Previously submitted to: JMIR Formative Research (no longer under consideration since Apr 25, 2023)

Date Submitted: Dec 10, 2021

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

Psychological distress among the people during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

  • Aruna Jothishanmugam; 
  • Amani Mohamed; 
  • Hawa Ibrahim Abd Alla Hamid; 
  • Soad Mohamed Abdalla Alnassry; 
  • Wafa Abdein Humza Bashir

ABSTRACT

Background:

The COVID-19 epidemic has had a major impact on mental health in the general population. As a result, during a pandemic, monitoring and oversight of the population's mental health is a top responsibility.

Objective:

The aim of this study is to examines the anxiety level of the people during initial period of COVID-19.

Methods:

The cross sectional online survey was done using the zung self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and zung self-rating depression scale. Out of 250 responders, 19.2%, 6.4%, and 0.8% experienced mild, moderate, marked to severe levels of anxiety

Results:

According to analysis, female (OR=1.3,95% CI=0.55 – 3.3,P=0.524), above the age of 59 years(OR=1.6,CI=(0.33 – 7.72),P=0.555), were experiencing moderate level of anxiety when compared with others. Related to depression, 36.4%,16.4% and 5.2% experienced mild, moderate ,marked to severe levels of depression. The findings show that female (OR=0.79,95%,CI=0.36–1.7,P=0.of0.845),above the age of 59 years(OR=4.4,CI=0.75 – 25.8,P=0.101)were experiencing marked level of depression than others.

Conclusions:

The main causes for anxiety and depression among the people is due to financial constraints, dual role of women, work from home, fear of infection, unemployment and online education.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Jothishanmugam A, Mohamed A, Hamid HIAA, Alnassry SMA, Bashir WAH

Psychological distress among the people during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

JMIR Preprints. 10/12/2021:35616

DOI: 10.2196/preprints.35616

URL: https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/35616

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