The psychological burden of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures: Experience from 4000 participants
Open accessAbstract
Background In February 2020 the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in Kuwait. Inevitably as many countries worldwide, the general public were negatively affected by the pandemic. Unemployment, uncertainty, distress, increasing deaths, lockdown measures all of which are potential burdens on mental health.Aim To assess the impact of COVID19 outbreak on mental health in Kuwait, and to explore the potential influencing risk factors.Methods We conducted an online questionnaire-based study in Kuwait between 25 th May 2020 to 30 th May 2020. Questions were based on demographics, lifestyle during outbreak, depression and anxiety assessment. Total PHQ9 and GAD7 scores were calculated for each responder.Results We had 4132 responders. Most were females (69.31%), married (59.37%), between the age of 21-30 (23.84%) and non-smokers (81.46%). Only (7.96%) had a positive past psychiatric history, (32.04%) had a past history of a chronic medical disease. During the outbreak most of the responders lost their jobs (39.21%) and only (12.83%) were attending work regularly, only (6.82%) worked in the healthcare sector. 59.27% report increased social media use compared to before the lockdown. When asked about their daily time spent following COVID19-related news, most (37.8%) spend more than 2 hours and (7.74%) spend more than 4 hours. The overall prevalence of depressive symptoms was (30.13%) and the prevalence of anxiety symptoms was (25.28%).Limitations In the cross-sectional nature of the study.Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic caused a burden on mental health. Psychological support and mental health awareness should be implemented and made accessible to all individuals during pandemics.
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The association between COVID-19-related emotional reactions and youth mental health outcomes is generally consistent with evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on adult mental health.
“This is generally consistent with evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on adult mental health [49,50], yet not surprising.”
From Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health Outcomes in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review (2020) · cites this paper as [50]
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- Authors
- Burhamah, W., AlKhayyat, A., Oroszlányová, M., AlKenane, A., Almansouri, A., Behbehani, M., Karimi, N., Jafar, H., & AlSuwaidan, M.
- Affiliations
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (IE)
- Ministry of Health (KW)
- American University of the Middle East (KW)
- McGill University Health Centre (CA)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Burhamah, Waleed
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-12
- Volume
- 277
- Pages
- 977-985
- ISSN
- 0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7476447
- OpenAlex
- W3084369064
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 45 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 9.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown measures, mental health, depression, anxiety, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, unemployment, social media use, news consumption, risk factors, Kuwait
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Anxiety, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Female, Humans, Kuwait, Life Style, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Pneumonia, Viral, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Quarantine, Surveys and Questionnaires, Unemployment, Prevalence, Cost of Illness, Coronavirus Infections, Young Adult, Pandemics, Social Media
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