Risk factors and protective factors of mental health during COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown in adult Indian population- A cross-sectional study

  1. Jayakumar Saikarthik
  2. Ilango Saraswathi
  3. Thirusangu Siva

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Abstract

Background

The novel Corona virus has derailed the entire world and various steps have been taken by the health authorities to tackle this pandemic. Nationwide lockdown has been imposed to control the spread of COVID-19 outbreak in India, which could have psychological impact on the population.

Aim

Our study aims to study the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak & subsequent lockdown on mental health status of adult Indian population along with identifying the high-risk groups.

Methodology

An online survey was conducted during 3 rd phase of lockdown gathering details about sociodemographic variables, practice of precautionary measures, awareness and concerns regarding COVID-19 and mental health status of the participants through DASS21 questionnaire from 873 adults.

Results

The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress were 18.56%, 25.66%, and 21.99% respectively including higher number of participants with mild depression (15.1%) and stress (14.5%) and moderate anxiety (16.3%). Female gender, age <25 years, unemployment, self-business, employed in private sector, lack of formal education, larger household size, parenthood (>2 kids) were associated with increased likelihood of negative mental health. Confidence in physician’s ability to diagnose COVID-19 infection, decreased self-perceived likelihood of contracting COVID-19, lesser frequency of checking for information on COVID-19 and satisfaction of information received were protective against negative mental health.

Conclusion

This landmark study identified the protective and risk factors of mental health during COVID-19 pandemic, to help authorities and mental health workers to strategize and deliver interventional methods to maintain psychosocial wellbeing of the population.

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  1. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.13.20130153v2 on medRxiv
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.13.20130153: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Ethical approval was obtained from Institutional Ethics Committee on Fasttrack basis and the anonymity of the participants was maintained.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical analysis: Analysis was performed using SPSS V.26.0, IBM, New York, USA.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Limitations: Our study is limited by the cross-sectional nature and the non-availability of control group. The longitudinal effects of the pandemic and lockdown is not ascertained. The study participants included only those who had access to internet and those who could respond in English. None of our participants were tested positive for COVID-19 and neither had any contact history with known COVID-19 patients. Thus, our findings may not be generalised to the COVID-19 infected patients and their peers.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.13.20130153v1 on medRxiv