Perceived stress in different countries at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic
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Abstract
The coronavirus has spread around the world, causing an ongoing pandemic. After the lockdown and quarantine protocols, an evaluation of the population's current emotional state was made through a web-based survey available in both English and Spanish. The objective was to observe how respondents perceived stress and worry as a result of COVID-19.
Methods
The survey gathered data across three sections: socio-demographic data, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) by Cohen, and additional queries on current worries and behaviors due to this pandemic.
Results
The survey received 1523 respondents from 48 countries. The mean of the PSS-10 score was 17.4 (SD 6.5). Significantly higher scores were observed among women, young adults, students, and those who expressed concern about getting infected and considered themselves high-risk. No significant differences were observed between health professionals and other professions.
Conclusions
We describe an increase in stress levels due to the COVID-19 and point out groups at high risk. These findings could help to address the mental health care that is needed.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.03.20043992: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was endorsed by the member in charge of the Research Ethics Committee, of the University of Salamanca Health Care Complex. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS package v 20.0. SPSSsuggested: (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 …SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.03.20043992: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was endorsed by the member in charge of the Research Ethics Committee, of the University of Salamanca Health Care Complex. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS package v 20.0. SPSSsuggested: (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:Carstensen et al. 2006, offered reasons for this decline of stress with age, from the selectivity of positive aspects to reduced physical reactivity due to physical and health limitations. Frazier et al. 2019, emphasises three key components to explain the changes in integration for social decisions in ageing: theory of mind, emotion regulation, and memory for past experience. The reports from China, Italy and Spain at present address a high rate of infections in the health professionals. They are the ones who attend to all cases and are high risk group due to the continuous exposure to patients with COVID-19. Although, these findings reflect that the heath personnel get the same stress levels/ PSS-10 score, than the general population, just as described by Chua et al. 2004, with SARS in 2003. With a similar score McAlonan et al. 2007, reports 17 (5.7), describes that health professionals at the moment of the outbreak, do not present higher levels of perceived stress. However they maintain high stress levels for a longer time turning it into chronic stress. A possible explanation to this, is that this professionals are more accustomed to managing higher stress levels because of the nature of their jobs. They are used to encountering critical health situations. Furthermore, the survey was carried out at the beginning of the infectious outbreak in many countries, the distress in this personnel was just beginning and could be minimised at that moment. To examine whether the stre...
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.
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