Prevalence of posttraumatic and general psychological stress during COVID-19: a rapid review and meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
Emerging evidence suggests rates of posttraumatic stress and psychological stress in the general population are elevated due to COVID-19. However, a meta-analysis is needed to attain more precise prevalence estimates due to between-study variability. Thus, we performed a rapid review and meta-analysis of posttraumatic stress and general psychological stress symptoms during COVID-19. Electronic searches were conducted up to May 26th, 2020 using key terms: mental illness and COVID-19. A total of k = 14 non-overlapping studies were identified for inclusion. Random effects meta-analyses indicated that the pooled prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms and psychological stress in the general population was 23.88% and 24.84%, respectively. In both meta-analyses, the prevalence of stress symptoms was higher in unpublished compared to peer-reviewed studies. Overall, nearly one-in-four adults experienced significant stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological resources and services must be allocated to help address the mental health burden of COVID-19. High quality, longitudinal research on the long-term mental health effects of the pandemic is greatly needed.
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Longitudinal studies have shown that the pandemic has impacted on a variety of outcomes.
“Although we do not have pre-pandemic data, longitudinal studies have shown that the pandemic has impacted on a variety of outcomes (Cooke et al., 2020).”
From Factors impacting resilience as a result of exposure to COVID-19: The ecological resilience model (2021) · cites this paper as Cooke et al., 2020
The Discussion reports high levels of posttraumatic and general psychological stress associated with COVID-19, supporting an impact on those outcomes. It also says most available studies were cross-sectional and that longitudinal studies were needed to determine how stress changed over time; it does not support the claim that longitudinal studies had already demonstrated impacts across a variety of outcomes. Page numbers are not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredDuring the pandemic, nearly one in four adults had significant acute and traumatic stress and were considered candidates for intervention.
“During the pandemic nearly one-in-four adults had significant acute and traumatic stress and were considered candidates for intervention [25].”
From Overview of sleep management during COVID-19. (2022) · cites this paper as [25]
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Background
- Authors
- Cooke, J. E., Eirich, R., Racine, N., & Madigan, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Calgary (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Madigan, Sheri
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-10
- Volume
- 292
- Pages
- 113347
- ISSN
- 0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7392847
- OpenAlex
- W3045745830
- Cited by
- 360
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 70 · 2022: 111 · 2021: 110 · 2020: 11
- FWCI
- 30.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Canada Research Chairs
- Alberta Innovates
- 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
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, posttraumatic stress symptoms, psychological stress, prevalence, mental health
- MeSH terms
- Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adult, Mental Disorders, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Pneumonia, Viral, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Stress, Psychological, Prevalence, Coronavirus Infections, Pandemics
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