Determinants of psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures: a nationwide on-line survey in Greece and Cyprus

  1. Petros Galanis
  2. Evangelia Andreadaki
  3. Efrosyni Kleanthous
  4. Anastasia Georgiadou
  5. Efi Evangelou
  6. Georgios Kallergis
  7. Daphne Kaitelidou

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

A limited number of studies have investigated the distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures in the general population. We studied psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures in the general population in Greece and Cyprus. Also, we investigated several demographic, clinical and job characteristics of the participants as possible determinants of distress. Data collection was performed during lockdown measures in Greece and Cyprus (from April 21 st to May 4 th 2020). All participants provided informed consent to participate in the study. We used the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) to measure the psychological distress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures. Seventeen point four percent of the participants had overall IES-R score from 24 to 32 indicating that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a clinical concern, while 33.5% had overall IES-R score >32 indicating that PTSD is a probable diagnosis. Females, Cyprus residents, participants that live with elderly people or patients with a chronic disease in home, participants with a mental health disease or/and chronic disease, participants under pharmaceutical treatment, participants that lost their work due to the pandemic and participants that work in hospital experienced greater distress. Also, increased age and decreased educational level was associated with increased distress. Findings suggest that our sample experienced great distress and this distress was affected by several demographic, clinical and job characteristics. Appropriate interventions should be established in order to support psychologically high risk groups and decrease their distress.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.25.20219006: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Thus, all participants provided informed consent to participate in the study.
    IRB: The National Bioethics Committee of Cyprus approved our study.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21.0.
    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 has several limitations. Given the limited resources available, quarantine restrictive measures and time-sensitivity of the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected the data through social media and a snowball sampling strategy was adopted, focused on recruiting the general population living in Greece and Cyprus. The snowballing sampling strategy is a quick and easy method but it is not a random procedure and thus generalization of our results should be done with great caution. Another limitation is that we used a self-reported questionnaire to measure the distress in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures and this measurement may not always be aligned with assessment by mental health professionals. Similarly, respondents might have provided socially desirable responses in terms of the satisfaction with the health information received and precautionary measures. In addition, we measured several demographic, clinical and job determinants of distress but there are many other determinants that could be investigated e.g. psychological support, financial status etc.

    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.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.10.25.20219006v1 on medRxiv