scholarly journals A Mental Health Surveillance System for the General Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Protocol for a Multiwave Cross-sectional Survey Study

10.2196/23748 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. e23748
Author(s):  
Nasser F BinDhim ◽  
Nora A Althumiri ◽  
Mada H Basyouni ◽  
Asem A Alageel ◽  
Suliman Alghnam ◽  
...  

Background The COVID-19 outbreak can potentially be categorized as a traumatic event. Public health surveillance is one of the cornerstones of public health practice, and it empowers decision makers to lead and manage public health crises and programs more effectively by providing timely and useful evidence. Objective This paper presents the protocol for a study that aims to identify, track, and monitor trends in the population in Saudi Arabia at risk of major depressive disorders and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This study utilizes continuous, cross-sectional, national-level mental health screening via computer-assisted phone interviews, conducted in four waves on a monthly basis (between May and August 2020). Arabic-speaking adults, aged ≥18 years, and living in Saudi Arabia were recruited via a random phone list. This surveillance system used the proportional quota sampling technique to achieve an equal distribution of participants, stratified by age and gender, and region, within and across the 13 administrative regions of Saudi Arabia. A sample size of 4056 participants per wave was calculated to achieve enough power to detect changes in mental health status. The questionnaire includes the Arabic version of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to measure depressive symptoms and the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) to measure anxiety. In addition, it will collect data on sociodemographic variables and potential risk factors. Results Study recruitment began in May 2020. The data analysis was completed in October 2020, and the final report is expected to be published by the end of December 2020. Conclusions Monitoring the population’s mental health status during the COVID-19 pandemic will inform decision makers of any potential deterioration in mental health on a national level and among subgroups, including across regions, age groups, and gender groups. It will allow decision makers to recognize issues and intervene sooner. It will also provide valuable scientific data to help understand the effects of epidemics and pandemics on mental health. As far as we know, this is the only study that attempts to monitor the mental health status of the general population on a monthly basis. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/23748

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasser F BinDhim ◽  
Nora A Althumiri ◽  
Mada H Basyouni ◽  
Asem A Alageel ◽  
Suliman Alghnam ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 outbreak can potentially be categorized as a traumatic event. Public health surveillance is one of the cornerstones of public health practice, and it empowers decision makers to lead and manage public health crises and programs more effectively by providing timely and useful evidence. OBJECTIVE This paper presents the protocol for a study that aims to identify, track, and monitor trends in the population in Saudi Arabia at risk of major depressive disorders and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS This study utilizes continuous, cross-sectional, national-level mental health screening via computer-assisted phone interviews, conducted in four waves on a monthly basis (between May and August 2020). Arabic-speaking adults, aged ≥18 years, and living in Saudi Arabia were recruited via a random phone list. This surveillance system used the proportional quota sampling technique to achieve an equal distribution of participants, stratified by age and gender, and region, within and across the 13 administrative regions of Saudi Arabia. A sample size of 4056 participants per wave was calculated to achieve enough power to detect changes in mental health status. The questionnaire includes the Arabic version of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to measure depressive symptoms and the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) to measure anxiety. In addition, it will collect data on sociodemographic variables and potential risk factors. RESULTS Study recruitment began in May 2020. The data analysis was completed in October 2020, and the final report is expected to be published by the end of December 2020. CONCLUSIONS Monitoring the population’s mental health status during the COVID-19 pandemic will inform decision makers of any potential deterioration in mental health on a national level and among subgroups, including across regions, age groups, and gender groups. It will allow decision makers to recognize issues and intervene sooner. It will also provide valuable scientific data to help understand the effects of epidemics and pandemics on mental health. As far as we know, this is the only study that attempts to monitor the mental health status of the general population on a monthly basis. CLINICALTRIAL INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/23748


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ansuman Panigrahi ◽  
Aditya Prasad Padhy ◽  
Madhulita Panigrahi

Mental health is a major public health concern worldwide. This study aimed to assess the mental health status and its correlates among married working women residing in Bhubaneswar city of Odisha, India. A cross-sectional study was undertaken in 240 households involving 240 married working women following a multistage cluster random sampling design. Using the predesigned, pretested interview schedule and self-reporting questionnaire, all relevant information was collected. Our study revealed that 32.9% of study respondents had poor mental health and only about 10% of these women had sought any kind of mental health services. Logistic regression analysis showed that 3 predictors such as favourable attitude of colleagues, sharing their own problems with husband, and spending time for yoga/meditation/exercise had significant positive impact on the mental health status of married working women. A preventive program regarding various aspects of mental health for married working women at workplace as well as community level could be a useful strategy in reducing this public health problem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinghua Li ◽  
Jingdong Xu ◽  
Huan Zhou ◽  
Hua You ◽  
Xiaohui Wang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Background Public health workers at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) and primary health care institutes (PHIs) were among the main workers who implemented prevention, control, and containment measures. However, their efforts and health status have not been well documented. We aimed to investigate the working conditions and health status of front line public health workers in China during the COVID-19 epidemic. Methods Between 18 February and 1 March 2020, we conducted an online cross-sectional survey of 2,313 CDC workers and 4,004 PHI workers in five provinces across China experiencing different scales of COVID-19 epidemic. We surveyed all participants about their work conditions, roles, burdens, perceptions, mental health, and self-rated health using a self-constructed questionnaire and standardised measurements (i.e., Patient Health Questionnaire and General Anxiety Disorder scale). To examine the independent associations between working conditions and health outcomes, we used multivariate regression models controlling for potential confounders. Results The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and poor self-rated health was 21.3, 19.0, and 9.8%, respectively, among public health workers (27.1, 20.6, and 15.0% among CDC workers and 17.5, 17.9, and 6.8% among PHI workers). The majority (71.6%) made immense efforts in both field and non-field work. Nearly 20.0% have worked all night for more than 3 days, and 45.3% had worked throughout the Chinese New Year holiday. Three risk factors and two protective factors were found to be independently associated with all three health outcomes in our final multivariate models: working all night for >3 days (multivariate odds ratio [ORm]=1.67~1.75, p<0.001), concerns about infection at work (ORm=1.46~1.89, p<0.001), perceived troubles at work (ORm=1.10~1.28, p<0.001), initiating COVID-19 prevention work after January 23 (ORm=0.78~0.82, p=0.002~0.008), and ability to persist for > 1 month at the current work intensity (ORm=0.44~0.55, p<0.001). Conclusions Chinese public health workers made immense efforts and personal sacrifices to control the COVID-19 epidemic and faced the risk of mental health problems. Efforts are needed to improve the working conditions and health status of public health workers and thus maintain their morale and effectiveness during the fight against COVID-19.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuchen Ying ◽  
Liemin Ruan ◽  
Fanqian Kong ◽  
Binbin Zhu ◽  
Yunxin Ji ◽  
...  

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 311
Author(s):  
Nora A. Althumiri ◽  
Mada H. Basyouni ◽  
Norah AlMousa ◽  
Mohammed F. AlJuwaysim ◽  
Rasha A. Almubark ◽  
...  

The global prevalence of obesity is increasing. Obesity is associated with many chronic diseases and health conditions. This study aims to estimate the current prevalence of obesity in Saudi Arabia and described the current national-level status of the association between obesity and various health conditions. This study is a nationwide cross-sectional survey conducted over phone-interviews in June 2020. In this study, a proportional quota-sampling technique was used to obtain equal distributions of participants, stratified by age and gender, across the 13 regions of Saudi Arabia. Weight and height were self-reported, and the obesity was determined as BMI ≥ 30. Logistic regression adjusted for age and gender was used for exploring current associations between obesity and health conditions. Of the 6239 participants contacted, 4709 participants responded and completed the interview with a response rate of 75.48%. Of them, 50.1% were female, the mean age was 36.4 ± 13.5 (Range: 18–90), and the median age was 36. The national weighted prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30) was 24.7%, and the prevalence in the sample (unweighted) was 21.7%. Obesity was significantly associated with type 2 diabetes [Odd ratio, (OR) = 1.52], hypercholesterolemia (OR = 1.69), hypertension (OR = 1.61), lung diseases (OR = 1.69), rheumatoid arthritis (OR = 1.57), sleep apnea (OR = 1.82), colon diseases (OR = 1.31), and thyroid disorders (OR = 1.8). This study provides an update on the recent prevalence of obesity in Saudi Arabia. It also shows the variation in prevalence rates between different regions, which might be explored further. Although obesity shows a decreasing trend, almost one-quarter of this study sample were obese. Obesity is currently associated with many health conditions that can affect the individuals’ quality of life, impose stress on the healthcare system and impose an economic burden on the country. This evidence highlights the need for action to focus more on obesity in Saudi Arabia.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Tasdik Hasan

Background: Depression is a major morbidity and the most common mental disorder among the medical students in medical schools globally. Undergraduate students suffer stress more due to their academic curriculum than the students of other faculties. In low resource settings like Bangladesh, there is a dearth in research on mental health of undergraduate medical students. This pilot study was conducted to add to the existing limited evidence by reporting the prevalence of depression, describing sleeping pattern &amp; suicidal tendencies among medical students. Relevantly, we have investigated to the overall mental health status among the medical students in Bangladesh. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in two medical colleges of Dhaka in between July 2013 to December 2013, among 221 Bangladeshi medical students from first to fifth year. By convenient sampling technique, data were collected by a pretested, structured, self-administered questionnaire and analysis was done by SPSS 18.0 version. Depression were assessed by validated PHQ-9 tool among the respondents. Goldberg’s General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) was used for assessing overall mental health status. Results: Depression was found in 38.9% of participants with 3.6%, 14.5%, 20.8% of being either severe, moderate and mild depression respectively. 17.6% medical students had suicidal tendency or attempted suicide at least for once after attending medical school. The sleeping hours were inadequate and altered after starting this stressful academic course. 33.5% medical students had poor mental health status. There was a statistically significant association between poor mental health status with age group of less than 22 years and initial academic study year (1st to 3rd of MBBS).Conclusion: The findings are suggestive of a higher prevalence of depression among early year medical students and marginal predominance in males. Suicidal tendency is also higher. These calls for further investigation with situation analysis, qualitative explorations and surveys to explore the burden of such disorders in Bangladesh.


Author(s):  
Hari Krishnan R. ◽  
Hanitha Rajasekar ◽  
Suganthi S.

Background: The whole world became still, when a major pandemic COVID-19 started its toll across all developed and developing countries. It has caused both physical and emotional disturbances among all age groups. This study was done to evaluate the parental mental health in COVID-19 as this group is not given much importance. The major mental health problems associated with COVID-19 among parents are due to online classes which has caused depression, anxiety and stress.Methods: A cross-sectional study done among all parents, especially those of whose children are attending online class were included in the study. Convenient sampling was used to select 204 participants, GHQ 12 questionnaire was used for data collection on mental health status among parents.Results: Overall prevalence of parents with better mental health <19 was 108 (52.9%) and prevalence of parents with poor mental health >19 was 96 (47.1%).Conclusions: This study concluded that parental age of 31 to 40 years who are employed and have children studying in primary school to have a poor mental health status. The most important contributing factors for poor parental health were online classes for children and work place stress.


Author(s):  
Charlie Albert Smith ◽  
Lion Shahab ◽  
Ann McNeill ◽  
Sarah E Jackson ◽  
Jamie Brown ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction E-cigarettes (ECs) may benefit smokers with mental health conditions who are more likely to smoke, and smoke more heavily, than those without mental health conditions. This could be undermined if harm misperceptions in this group are high as is the case in the general population. This study aimed to assess EC harm perceptions relative to cigarettes as a function of mental health status and a variety of characteristics. Methods Data were collected from 6531 current smokers in 2016/2017 in household surveys of representative samples of adults. The associations of mental health status (self-reported mental health condition and past year treatment), smoking and EC use characteristics, and characteristics relating to use of potential information sources with harm perceptions of ECs relative to cigarettes (measured by correct response “less harmful” vs. wrong responses “more harmful,” “equally harmful,” “don’t know”) were analyzed with logistic regression. Results A similar proportion of smokers without mental health conditions (61.5%, 95% CI 60.1–62.9) and with mental health conditions (both with [61.3%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 58.7–63.8] and without past year treatment [61.5%, 95% CI 58.1–64.7]) held inaccurate EC harm perceptions (all P &gt; 0.05). Being female, nonwhite, aged 25–34 compared with 16–24, from lower social grades (C2, D, and E), not having post-16 qualifications, no EC experience, a daily smoker, unmotivated to quit &lt;1 month, non-internet user and non-broadsheet reader were all associated with more inaccurate harm perceptions (all p &lt; .05). Conclusions The majority of smokers in England have inaccurate harm perceptions of ECs regardless of mental health status. Implications This study is the first to use a nationally representative sample in order to investigate whether smokers with and without mental health conditions differ with regard to harm perceptions of ECs. Findings show that the majority of smokers in England hold inaccurate harm perceptions of ECs, and this does not differ as a function of mental health status. A number of characteristics associated with disadvantaged groups were significantly associated with inaccurate harm perceptions. These findings highlight the need to improve awareness and understanding among disadvantaged groups regarding the relative harms of ECs compared with tobacco.


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