Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Dimension of Health: A Sensitive Issue to be Addressed at the Earliest

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 158-166
Author(s):  
Sunil Nepal ◽  
Sudip Nepal ◽  
Chakrakodi S. Shastry ◽  
Sharad Chand ◽  
U.P. Nandakumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Global Mental Health ◽  
High Stress ◽  
World Health ◽  
Frontline Workers ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

Background: The novel coronavirus disease outbreak of 2019 was declared as a public health emergency by the World Health Organization. At present, the virus has spread throughout the world, leading to millions of cases and is further increasing. Objective: The main objective of this study is to review the impact of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the mental health of frontline workers, isolated and quarantined people and the general population. Methods: The relevant articles were extracted from PubMed, Web of Science and ScienceDirect database by using the keywords “Mental health”, “COVID-19”, “Impact of COVID-19”, “Frontline workers”, “Quarantine”, “Isolation”, “Immunity” and “Economy”. The retrieved articles were included in the study based on inclusion criteria to perform the review. All the selected scientific articles were critically reviewed and the information is summarized in this narrative review. Results: The majority of the studies stated that frontline health workers were at an increased risk of depression. The infected, suspects and quarantined people were reported with high stress, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidal thoughts. The pandemic has devastated the world’s economy, which has severely impacted global mental health. Conclusion: Mental health should be taken into account, and necessary interventional initiatives need to be considered both by the health authorities and the government to minimize the adversity of the consequences. The pandemic may disappear with the discovery of new vaccines or medications, but its negative impact on mental health may persist, particularly among vulnerable populations. Thus, mental health must be a matter of concern in the present scenario.

scholarly journals Impact of Covid-19 on Stock Market in Sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-70
Author(s):  
Saifullahi Adam Bayero ◽  
Babangida Danladi Safiyanu ◽  
Zaitun Sanusi Bakabe
Keyword(s):  
Stock Markets ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Selection Criterion ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
World Health ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

Corona virus disease (COVID-19) which was declared by the World Health Organization as a global pandemic caused serious economic problem to all the countries including Sub-Saharan Africa. Given the negative impact of COVID19 on the world economy, this paper examined the impact of COVID19 related cases and death on stock exchange markets volatility in Sub-Saharan African countries. The study used the number of reported cases and death from four Sub-Saharan African countries viz Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Botswana, reported cases and death from China and U.S. and all share index as a proxy of stock markets in four countries from 28 February 2020 to 21 December 2020. The study estimated GARCH 11, TGARCH 11, and EGARCH 11 since the variables are heteroskadestic in nature which makes the application of ARCH lausible; the selection criterion was based on Akaike, Schwarz, and Hannan info Criteria. The result shows that COVID19 confirmed cases and death do not affect the operation of the stock markets in Sub-Saharan African countries, but the volatility of the markets has increased within the period of analysis. Furthermore, Botswana and Kenya stock markets were affected by external cases from China. We therefore recommended that stock markets stakeholders in Sub-Saharan Africa should be more concern about health safety measures and be ready for any future pandemic that might affect the markets.

Mental Health Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in El Salvador

2021 ◽  
pp. 107780122097880
Author(s):  
Laura Navarro-Mantas ◽  
Soledad de Lemus ◽  
Jesús L. Megías
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Common Mental Disorders ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

Violence against women (VAW) is currently one of the main problems in El Salvador, which leads the ranking of femicides in the world. We conducted the first national survey on VAW in El Salvador following the World Health Organization (WHO) methodology, to determine the impact of violence on women’s mental health ( N = 1,274). Women who had experienced intimate partner violence showed significantly poorer mental health and more suicidal ideations. Common mental disorders were significantly associated with the experience of all forms of violence, after adjusting for sociodemographic variables and stressful life experiences. The results are discussed in connection with the primary care protocols and the design of public policies.

scholarly journals COVID-19 pandemic: A review of the global lockdown and its far-reaching effects

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 003685042110198
Author(s):  
Helen Onyeaka ◽  
Christian K Anumudu ◽  
Zainab T Al-Sharify ◽  
Esther Egele-Godswill ◽  
Paul Mbaegbu
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Education Delivery ◽  
Environmental Air ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Impact

COVID-19, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the 11th of March 2020, leading to some form of lockdown across almost all countries of the world. The extent of the global pandemic due to COVID-19 has a significant impact on our lives that must be studied carefully to combat it. This study highlights the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on crucial aspects of daily life globally, including; Food security, Global economy, Education, Tourism, hospitality, sports and leisure, Gender Relation, Domestic Violence/Abuse, Mental Health and Environmental air pollution through a systematic search of the literature. The COVID-19 global lockdown was initiated to stem the spread of the virus and ‘flatten the curve’ of the pandemic. However, the impact of the lockdown has had far-reaching effects in different strata of life, including; changes in the accessibility and structure of education delivery to students, food insecurity as a result of unavailability and fluctuation in prices, the depression of the global economy, increase in mental health challenges, wellbeing and quality of life amongst others. This review article highlights the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown across the globe. As the global lockdown is being lifted in a phased manner in various countries of the world, it is necessary to explore its impacts to understand its consequences comprehensively. This will guide future decisions that will be made in a possible future wave of the COVID-19 pandemic or other global disease outbreak.

scholarly journals Social isolation and quarantine in the COVID-19 pandemic: impacts on mental health and quality of population life

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e30510212535
Author(s):  
Gabriel Kiaro Leite Nunes ◽  
Karinne Alice Santos de Araújo ◽  
Thais Ranielle Souza de Oliveira ◽  
Marcelina da Conceição Botelho Teixeira ◽  
Ieler Ferreira Ribeiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Definitive Treatment ◽  
World Population ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about major changes in the lifestyle of the world population. Due to the lack of vaccines or a definitive treatment for disease, governments around the world have adopted social isolation and quarantine as methods to control the spread of the virus. Objective: Thus, the objective of this study was to discuss how social isolation and quarantine periods affected people's mental health and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An integrative literature review was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic between March and September 2020, establishing the following guiding question: How did social isolation and quarantine affect the mental health and quality of life of the population in the COVID-19 pandemic? Results: The final sample consisted of nineteen (19) articles, two (2) addressed depression during the pandemic period, three (3) presented the pandemic and the relationship with sociodemographic aspects, five (5) analyzed mental health in the pandemic, four (4) reported the impact of COVID-19 on the population's style and quality of life and the last five (5) demonstrated the quality of human relationships and emotional aspects in the face of the pandemic. Conclusion: It was demonstrated that isolation and the quarantine period had a negative impact on the population's quality of life and long-term mental health.

scholarly journals Understanding Burnout in Indian Housewives Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charvi Pareek ◽  
Nandani Agarwal ◽  
Yash Jain
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Personal Space ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Frontline Workers ◽  
Work From Home ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

COVID-19 Pandemic has brought the world underwaters. All over the world, people were affected. The focus during this period was mostly on patients and frontline workers, with some attention also towards working adults. One cohort that has not gained much light during this pandemic is of housewives. Housewives had to manage household chores along with managing family relations – especially in India, where societal expectations lie on the female to provide family members with care and manage the household. Dealing with uncertainty, decreased availability of personal space, increased presence of and interaction with people in the household due to work from home scenarios, shifting to the online world and adapting to the change, economic disturbances, absence of domestic help, managing parental responsibility, increased stress about one’s own and family members’ health and lack of social interaction have contributed to their inconvenience. Existing evidence supports that housewives have been experiencing burnout in their homes. This qualitative study was conducted to see how the added pressure of COVID – 19 and social isolation has affected housewives mentally, leading to burnout. This narrative study includes participants of Indian origin, between the ages of 34 to 50 years. Participants were shortlisted on the basis of their scores obtained on the COVID-19 Burnout Scale, designed by Murat Yıldırım and Fatma Solmaz. The themes generated through this research study are related to understanding the impact of burnout on the mental health of housewives along the areas of physical health, financial well-being, digitization, uncertainty regarding COVID-19, parental responsibilities, social & emotional health, relationship management, and coping mechanisms. The findings of this study suggest that the mental health of housewives has significantly worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic due to constant exposure to certain stressors.

scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare workers in different regions of the world

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S258-S258
Author(s):  
Mahfuja Islam ◽  
Philip George ◽  
Sindhu Sankaran ◽  
Janet Leu Su Hui ◽  
Tzun Kit
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Assessment ◽  
Survey Tool ◽  
Frontline Workers ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

AimsThe global health system is facing a serious challenge after the recent outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus infection which was first identified in Wuhan, China in November 2019 and declared as a pandemic in March 2020 by WHO. There is a wide consensus that this pandemic has negative psychosocial consequences as well as unforeseeable provision of mental health care services and just not on physical health alone. The aim of this research study is to determine the prevalence of psychological distress and to identify the sociodemographic variables with the main attributable factors associated with the psychological distress among healthcare workers and suggestions on how to reduce the impact on the mental health of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in different regions of the world.MethodWe performed a cross-sectional study from September-November 2020. We used a self-administered survey tool which was distributed electronically to healthcare workers across the globe. The data were stored on an online database with password protected devices where survey responses were restricted to investigators exclusively.Data collected were: 1) Socio-demographic data (age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, religion, role in the healthcare, region of practice); 2) Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI) questionnaire which contains 22 standardized items. This is a subjective assessment to score the degree of psychological well-being by focusing on 6 domains: depression; anxiety; positive-well-being; self-control; vitality and general health; 3) Subjective assessment from respondents of the main attributable factors causing psychological distress and suggested methods to help reduce the impact on mental health on health care workers.ResultMajority out of the 217 respondents were from a younger age group; females and married/domestic partnership, mainly from Western Pacific Region, South East Asian and the African Region. More than half the respondents were moderate-severely psychologically distressed and the three main attributable factors causing psychological distress were: fear of family/friends contracting COVID-19 followed by lack of PPE and discomfort caused by wearing PPE for long hours. Respondents suggested that the distress would be reduced if: more resources were provided in hospital; protocols and guidelines were implemented and counselling facilities with recreational activities were available to frontline workers.ConclusionThis study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of healthcare workers and more support or strategies need to come in place to protect frontline workers at the time of crises.

A Fallacy of the World Health Organization's Mental Health Gap Action Programme and Intervention Guide: Counseling and Psychotherapy Are Also (Western) Indigenous/Traditional Healing Methods

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-61
Author(s):  
Robinder P. Bedi ◽  
Mohit Bassi
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Global Mental Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Gap ◽  
Cultural Healing ◽  
Action Programme

This article will argue that, rather than being objective and universal treatment appro-aches, counseling and psychotherapy are indigenous/traditional (i.e., cultural) healing methods of the Euro-American West. Therefore, the World Health Organization's Mental Health Gap Action Programme (MHGAP), designed to provide increased access to reportedly highly effective Western mental health treatment services in many low- and middle-income countries, is likely to falter. It can be argued that culturally adapted counseling and psychotherapy will be most effective for individuals in non-Western countries who endorse or are somewhat acculturated to Western understandings and ways of living. Therefore, Western psychological interventions should not be at the forefront of the MHGAP in non-Western countries. Supportive evidence for this perspective is summarized and alternative approaches to promoting global mental health that draw on non-Western indigenous healing practices are presented.

scholarly journals Protecting Rights and Building Capacities: Challenges to Global Mental Health Policy in Light of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Wildeman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
International Development ◽  
Global Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Disabled Persons ◽  
World Health ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) has in the last decade identified mental health as a priority for global health promotion and international development, to be targeted through promulgation of evidence-based medical practices, health systems reform, and respect for human rights. Yet these overlapping strategies are marked by tensions as the historical primacy of expert-led initiatives is increasingly subject to challenge by new social movements — in particular, disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs). These tensions come into focus upon situating the WHO’s contributions to the analysis of global mental health in light of the negotiation and early stages of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), particularly as it applies to persons with mental disabilities.

scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare workers in different regions of the world

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S258-S259
Author(s):  
Mahfuja Islam ◽  
Philip George ◽  
Sindhu Sankaran ◽  
Janet Leu Su Hui ◽  
Tzun Kit
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Assessment ◽  
Survey Tool ◽  
Frontline Workers ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

AimsThe global health system is facing a serious challenge after the recent outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus infection which was first identified in Wuhan, China in November 2019 and declared as a pandemic in March 2020 by WHO. There is a wide consensus that this pandemic has negative psychosocial consequences as well as unforeseeable provision of mental health care services and just not on physical health alone. The aim of this research study is to determine the prevalence of psychological distress and to identify the sociodemographic variables with the main attributable factors associated with the psychological distress among healthcare workers and suggestions on how to reduce the impact on the mental health of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in different regions of the world.MethodWe performed a cross-sectional study from September-November 2020. We used a self-administered survey tool which was distributed electronically to healthcare workers across the globe. The data were stored on an online database with password protected devices where survey responses were restricted to investigators exclusively.Data collected were: 1) Socio-demographic data (age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, religion, role in the healthcare, region of practice); 2) Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI) questionnaire which contains 22 standardized items. This is a subjective assessment to score the degree of psychological well-being by focusing on 6 domains: depression; anxiety; positive-well-being; self-control; vitality and general health; 3) Subjective assessment from respondents of the main attributable factors causing psychological distress and suggested methods to help reduce the impact on mental health on health care workers.ResultMajority out of the 217 respondents were from a younger age group; females and married/domestic partnership, mainly from Western Pacific Region, South East Asian and the African Region. More than half the respondents were moderate-severely psychologically distressed and the three main attributable factors causing psychological distress were: fear of family/friends contracting COVID-19 followed by lack of PPE and discomfort caused by wearing PPE for long hours. Respondents suggested that the distress would be reduced if: more resources were provided in hospital; protocols and guidelines were implemented and counselling facilities with recreational activities were available to frontline workers.ConclusionThis study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of healthcare workers and more support or strategies need to come in place to protect frontline workers at the time of crises.

scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19 on public mental health and the buffering effect of sense of coherence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Schäfer ◽  
Roxanne Sopp ◽  
Christian Schanz ◽  
Marlene Staginnus ◽  
Anja S. Göritz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sense Of Coherence ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
High Stress ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Change Score ◽  
Stress Group ◽  
Psychopathological Symptoms ◽  
Traumatic Distress ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Introduction. It is claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic has a negative impact on mental health. However, to date, prospective studies are lacking. Moreover, it is important to identify which factors modulate the stress response to the pandemic. Previously, sense of coherence (SOC) has emerged as a particularly important resistance factor. Objective. This prospective study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on mental health and to investigate the ability of pre-outbreak SOC levels to predict changes in psychopathological symptoms.Methods. The study assessed psychopathological symptoms and SOC before and after the COVID-19 outbreak as well as post-outbreak COVID-19-related traumatic distress in a German-speaking sample (N=1,591). Bivariate latent change score (BLCS) modelling was used to analyse pre-to-post outbreak changes in psychopathological symptoms and the ability of SOC to predict symptom changes.Results. Overall, there was no change in psychopathological symptoms. However, on individual-respondent level 10% experienced a clinically significant increase in psychopathological symptoms, and 15% met cut-off criteria for COVID-19-related traumatic distress. Using BLCS modelling, we identified a high-stress group experiencing an increase in psychopathological symptoms and a decrease in SOC and a low-stress group showing the reversed pattern. Changes in SOC and psychopathological symptoms were predicted by pre-outbreak SOC and psychopathological symptom levels. Conclusions. Although mental health was stable in most respondents, a relevant proportion of the sample experienced increased psychopathological symptoms due to COVID-19. Since higher SOC was predictive of smaller changes in symptom levels, SOC training might be a promising approach to enhance resistance to stressors.

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