Predicting Managers' Mental Health Across Countries: Using Country-Level COVID-19 Statistics
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Abstract
There is limited research focusing on publicly available statistics on the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as predictors of mental health across countries. Managers are at risk of suffering from mental disorders during the pandemic because they face particular hardship.
Objective
We aim to predict mental disorder (anxiety and depression) symptoms of managers across countries using country-level COVID-19 statistics.
Methods
A two-wave online survey of 406 managers from 26 countries was performed in May and July 2020. We used logistic panel regression models for our main analyses and performed robustness checks using ordinary least squares regressions. In the sample, 26.5% of managers reached the cut-off levels for anxiety (General Anxiety Disorder-7; GAD-7) and 43.5% did so for depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9; PHQ-9) symptoms.
Findings
We found that cumulative COVID-19 statistics (e.g., cumulative cases, cumulative cases per million, cumulative deaths, and cumulative deaths per million) predicted managers' anxiety and depression symptoms positively, whereas daily COVID-19 statistics (daily new cases, smoothed daily new cases, daily new deaths, smoothed daily new deaths, daily new cases per million, and smoothed daily new cases per million) predicted anxiety and depression symptoms negatively. In addition, the reproduction rate was a positive predictor, while stringency of governmental lockdown measures was a negative predictor. Individually, we found that the cumulative count of deaths is the most suitable single predictor of both anxiety and depression symptoms.
Conclusions
Cumulative COVID-19 statistics predicted managers' anxiety and depression symptoms positively, while non-cumulative daily COVID-19 statistics predicted anxiety and depression symptoms negatively. Cumulative count of deaths is the most suitable single predictor of both anxiety and depression symptoms. Reproduction rate was a positive predictor, while stringency of governmental lockdown measures was a negative predictor.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.18.21260567: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
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 and future research: There are several limitations to this study. First, we only collected two waves of data, restricting our ability to make causal claims. Although it is a cohort study, future scholars may track individuals’ mental health over …
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.18.21260567: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
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 and future research: There are several limitations to this study. First, we only collected two waves of data, restricting our ability to make causal claims. Although it is a cohort study, future scholars may track individuals’ mental health over more waves with shorter intervals. Second, respondents were alumni of one of the most selective consulting firms in the world. Others might thus wish to replicate our findings in different manager populations to ensure generalizability. Third, our survey was voluntary, so the response rate was limited, and it is possible that managers with severe mental illness might not have responded in the first place. The generalizability of our findings might thus be restricted. Fourth, we collected only limited data on the organizations the managers were working in. This implies that future researchers might fruitfully replicate our research while, for example, accounting explicitly for organizations’ specific responses to the pandemic including any organizational support managers might have received. Fifth, this study aims to explore epidemic statistics as predictors of mental health, and as the first study to do so with the aim of helping psychiatric screening, we did not extensively explore the possible mechanisms leading to mental health disorders. Our findings thus call for future research to examine the relationship between epidemic statistics and mental health beyond psychiatric screening purposes.
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.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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