Word count: 3080
The recent Covid-19 global pandemic has resulted in multiple impacts on everyday
life around the world. Using research evidence, discuss the main impacts on mental
health and consider what actions could be taken to mitigate the risks by individuals,
institutions, commercial companies and/or governments.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is a respiratory disease caused by severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2). It was first documented in December
2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan before spreading to 216 countries and territories (Lorente
et al., 2021; Ganesh et al., 2021). COVID-19 has resulted in 62,195,274 cases and
1,453,355 deaths worldwide and has a mortality rate of 2.34% (Ganesh et al., 2021).
Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, body soreness, pneumonia, and
sore throat. Symptoms are severe and fatal for patients with additional chronic diseases,
with hypertension being strongly associated with diabetes, coronary bypass surgery and
prerenal azotemia. Rare symptoms include, diarrhoea, nausea, headache, respiratory
distress syndrome, sputum production, and septic shock (Tandan et al., 2021).
The COVID-19 is considered a stressful life event that has resulted in major changes to
everyday life. Past literature has stated that stressful life events are a risk factor for
developing mental health illnesses, notably depression and anxiety. Such stressful life
events could include: adverse childhood events, unemployment, unmarried status, marital
issues, bereavement, poor friendships, neuroticism, reduced levels of extraversion, cluster C
personality disorders, family history of psychiatric disorders, psychiatric history, poor
education, maternal distress during infancy, chronic illness, drug misuse and many more
(Borges et al., 2010; Essex et al., 2006; Vink, Aartsen and Schoevers., 2008). Being a
smoker, obese or a female are also risk factors for developing a poor mental health (Charles
et al., 2021; Borges et al., 2010; Vink, Aartsen and Schoevers., 2008).
The pandemic itself has exacerbated poor mental health risk factors such as loss of loved
ones, unemployment, disrupted education, social isolation, marital issues and divorce
(Blustein et al., 2020; Ganesh et al., 2021; Joshi and Sharma., 2020; Mesa Vieira et al.,
2020; Onyema et al., 2020). Therefore, it is expected that COVID-19 would contribute to a
deteriorating mental health globally. This essay will look at the evidence that exhibit the
impact of COVID-19 on mental health and consider some ways to mitigate the risks.
A study based in Bangladesh (Begum et al., 2021), found that 26.9%, 55.6% and 52.0% of
the population suffered from anxiety, mild to severe stress and depressive symptoms,
, Word count: 3080
respectively. With COVID-19 symptoms, the prevalence of ill mental health increased by 20-
30%. The multivariate logistic regression found that COVID-19 increases the risk of
experiencing depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms. According to the Chi-square test, the
association between COVID-19 symptoms and anxiety and stress symptoms were
statistically significant (X2 = 20.32, X2 = 42.78, P=0.000 respectively). Overall, this study
suggests that COVID-19 symptoms exacerbate mental health struggles.
An issue with this study is that it was retrospective, which meant that recall bias was likely.
Furthermore, this study was conducted via a social media survey where the symptoms were
heavily self-reported as opposed to clinically diagnosed. This also meant that only internet
users took part in this study, thus reducing the generalizability of this study. Additionally,
these findings raise questions as to whether these results are due to the pandemic itself or
social media.
A Chinese (Gao et al., 2020) study looked at the correlation between social media exposure
(SME) and mental health illnesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study found an
increase in the prevalence of anxiety (22.6%), depression (48.3%) and CDA (combination of
depression and anxiety; 19.4%) during the COVID outbreak. They found that depression,
anxiety and CDA were positively correlated with frequent SME however, the link between
SME and depression was insignificant. This study suggests that social media is a key
contributor to the rise in mental health difficulties during the pandemic.
This study also used surveys hence recall bias was present. Additionally, not all covariates
were measured and controlled so it is a possibility that there are other factors outside of
COVID-19 and SME that could have worsened mental health.
The previous 2 studies agree upon the fact that the prevalence of mental health disorders
increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. They discussed negative or false COVID-19
news as a possible cause of the link between poor mental health and COVID-19. Moreover,
social isolation could have also worsened people’s mental health during the pandemic.
A cross-sectional, longitudinal study (Brailovskaia et al., 2021) studied German and Italian
samples to assess stress levels during the pandemic. This study found that 60% of the
Italian participants and 50% of the German participants received information on COVID-19
from SM. Additionally, they only found a significant positive correlation between SME and
stress and related burdens. Other sources of information did not significantly correlate with
stress. Stress symptoms mediated the positive association between SME and burden.
This study supports the idea that the global deterioration of mental health is strongly
associated with SME and SM content as opposed to the COVID-19 disease itself. However,
The recent Covid-19 global pandemic has resulted in multiple impacts on everyday
life around the world. Using research evidence, discuss the main impacts on mental
health and consider what actions could be taken to mitigate the risks by individuals,
institutions, commercial companies and/or governments.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is a respiratory disease caused by severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2). It was first documented in December
2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan before spreading to 216 countries and territories (Lorente
et al., 2021; Ganesh et al., 2021). COVID-19 has resulted in 62,195,274 cases and
1,453,355 deaths worldwide and has a mortality rate of 2.34% (Ganesh et al., 2021).
Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, body soreness, pneumonia, and
sore throat. Symptoms are severe and fatal for patients with additional chronic diseases,
with hypertension being strongly associated with diabetes, coronary bypass surgery and
prerenal azotemia. Rare symptoms include, diarrhoea, nausea, headache, respiratory
distress syndrome, sputum production, and septic shock (Tandan et al., 2021).
The COVID-19 is considered a stressful life event that has resulted in major changes to
everyday life. Past literature has stated that stressful life events are a risk factor for
developing mental health illnesses, notably depression and anxiety. Such stressful life
events could include: adverse childhood events, unemployment, unmarried status, marital
issues, bereavement, poor friendships, neuroticism, reduced levels of extraversion, cluster C
personality disorders, family history of psychiatric disorders, psychiatric history, poor
education, maternal distress during infancy, chronic illness, drug misuse and many more
(Borges et al., 2010; Essex et al., 2006; Vink, Aartsen and Schoevers., 2008). Being a
smoker, obese or a female are also risk factors for developing a poor mental health (Charles
et al., 2021; Borges et al., 2010; Vink, Aartsen and Schoevers., 2008).
The pandemic itself has exacerbated poor mental health risk factors such as loss of loved
ones, unemployment, disrupted education, social isolation, marital issues and divorce
(Blustein et al., 2020; Ganesh et al., 2021; Joshi and Sharma., 2020; Mesa Vieira et al.,
2020; Onyema et al., 2020). Therefore, it is expected that COVID-19 would contribute to a
deteriorating mental health globally. This essay will look at the evidence that exhibit the
impact of COVID-19 on mental health and consider some ways to mitigate the risks.
A study based in Bangladesh (Begum et al., 2021), found that 26.9%, 55.6% and 52.0% of
the population suffered from anxiety, mild to severe stress and depressive symptoms,
, Word count: 3080
respectively. With COVID-19 symptoms, the prevalence of ill mental health increased by 20-
30%. The multivariate logistic regression found that COVID-19 increases the risk of
experiencing depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms. According to the Chi-square test, the
association between COVID-19 symptoms and anxiety and stress symptoms were
statistically significant (X2 = 20.32, X2 = 42.78, P=0.000 respectively). Overall, this study
suggests that COVID-19 symptoms exacerbate mental health struggles.
An issue with this study is that it was retrospective, which meant that recall bias was likely.
Furthermore, this study was conducted via a social media survey where the symptoms were
heavily self-reported as opposed to clinically diagnosed. This also meant that only internet
users took part in this study, thus reducing the generalizability of this study. Additionally,
these findings raise questions as to whether these results are due to the pandemic itself or
social media.
A Chinese (Gao et al., 2020) study looked at the correlation between social media exposure
(SME) and mental health illnesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study found an
increase in the prevalence of anxiety (22.6%), depression (48.3%) and CDA (combination of
depression and anxiety; 19.4%) during the COVID outbreak. They found that depression,
anxiety and CDA were positively correlated with frequent SME however, the link between
SME and depression was insignificant. This study suggests that social media is a key
contributor to the rise in mental health difficulties during the pandemic.
This study also used surveys hence recall bias was present. Additionally, not all covariates
were measured and controlled so it is a possibility that there are other factors outside of
COVID-19 and SME that could have worsened mental health.
The previous 2 studies agree upon the fact that the prevalence of mental health disorders
increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. They discussed negative or false COVID-19
news as a possible cause of the link between poor mental health and COVID-19. Moreover,
social isolation could have also worsened people’s mental health during the pandemic.
A cross-sectional, longitudinal study (Brailovskaia et al., 2021) studied German and Italian
samples to assess stress levels during the pandemic. This study found that 60% of the
Italian participants and 50% of the German participants received information on COVID-19
from SM. Additionally, they only found a significant positive correlation between SME and
stress and related burdens. Other sources of information did not significantly correlate with
stress. Stress symptoms mediated the positive association between SME and burden.
This study supports the idea that the global deterioration of mental health is strongly
associated with SME and SM content as opposed to the COVID-19 disease itself. However,
