Identification of the most vulnerable populations in the psychosocial sphere: a cross-sectional study conducted in Catalonia during the strict lockdown imposed against the COVID-19 pandemic

  1. Judith Farrés
  2. Jose Luis Ruiz
  3. Jose Manuel Mas
  4. Lilibeth Arias
  5. Maria-Rosa Sarrias
  6. Carolina Armengol
  7. Pere-Joan Cardona
  8. Jose A Munoz-Moreno
  9. Miriam Vilaplana
  10. Belen Arranz
  11. Judith Usall
  12. Antoni Serrano-Blanco
  13. Cristina Vilaplana

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Abstract

A cross-sectional study to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the psychosocial sphere in both the general population and healthcare workers (HCWs).

Methods

The study was conducted in Catalonia (Spain) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic when strict lockdown was in force. The study population included all people aged over 16 years who consented to participate in the study and completed the survey, in this case a 74-question questionnaire shared via social media using snowball sampling. A total of 56 656 completed survey questionnaires were obtained between 3 and 19 April 2020.

The primary and secondary outcome measures included descriptive statistics for the non-psychological questions and the psychological impact of the pandemic, such as depression, anxiety, stress and post-traumatic stress disorder question scores.

Results

A n early and markedly negative impact on family finances, fear of working with COVID-19 patients and ethical issues related to COVID-19 care among HCWs was observed. A total of seven target groups at higher risk of impaired mental health and which may therefore benefit from an intervention were identified, namely women, subjects aged less than 42 years, people with a care burden, socioeconomically deprived groups, people with unskilled or unqualified jobs, patients with COVID-19 and HCWs working with patients with COVID-19.

Conclusions

Active implementation of specific strategies to increase resilience and to prepare an adequate organisational response should be encouraged for the seven groups identified as high risk and susceptible to benefit from an intervention.

Trial registration number

NCT04378452 .

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052140
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.20.21254029: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:

    IdentifierStatusTitle
    NCT04378452Active, not recruitingAssessment of the Psycho-social Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak

    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

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.03.20.21254029v1 on medRxiv