BACKGROUND
The differences between physical and mental health across continents during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was unknown.
OBJECTIVE
This study compared the levels of impact of COVID-19 and mental health between people from Spain and China, and to correlate mental health parameters with variables relating to symptoms similar to COVID-19, COVID-19 knowledge and precautionary measures.
METHODS
We collected information on demographic data, physical symptoms, contact history, COVID-19 knowledge and precautionary measures. Participants filled the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). To analyze the differences in the mental health parameters, the mean score between the Chinese and Spanish respondents was compared by the independent sample t-test. The differences in categorical variables between the two samples was analyzed by the chi-squared test. Linear regressions was used to calculate the univariate associations between independent variables and mental health parameters for the Chinese and Spanish respondents separately
RESULTS
A total of 1539 participants (678 from Spain; 861 from China) were recruited. Spanish participants reported significantly more symptoms similar to COVID-19 infection, contact history with COVID-19, higher perceived risk of contracting COVID-19, frequent use of medical services and less confidence in medical services as compared with Chinese (p<0.001). Spanish participants reported significantly higher stress and depression scores while the Chinese participants reported significantly higher IES-R scores (p<0.001). Chinese participants encountered more discrimination from other countries (p<0.001). Significantly fewer Spanish participants preferred to use face masks as well as obtained health information related to COVID-19 (p<0.001). Significantly more Chinese participants reported the use of face masks was associated with less depression but more health information was associated with adverse mental health in Spanish (p<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
Our study found that Spanish respondents reported higher levels of stress and depression as well as more symptoms and medical services. Before the next pandemic, Spain needs to establish a prompt policy to implement rapid response and enhanced medical services to safeguard physical and mental health.
The Impact of 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic on Physical and Mental Health: A Comparison between China and Spain (Preprint)