Factors associated with psychological disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic: Multicountry online study

Martyna Plomecka; Susanna Gobbi; Rachael Neckels; Piotr Radzinski; Beata Skorko; Samuel Lazzeri; Kristina Almazidou; Alisa Dedic; Asja Bakalovic; Lejla Hrustic; Zainab Ashraf; Sarvin Es Haghi; Luis Rodriguez-Pino; Verena Waller; Hafsa Jabeen; A. Beyza Alp; Mehdi Behnam; Dana Shibli; Zofia Baranczuk-Turska; Zeeshan Haq; Salah Qureshi; Adriana M. Strutt; Ali Jawaid

doi:10.2196/28736

Factors associated with psychological disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic: Multicountry online study

Martyna Plomecka, Susanna Gobbi, Rachael Neckels, Piotr Radzinski, Beata Skorko, Samuel Lazzeri, Kristina Almazidou, Alisa Dedic, Asja Bakalovic, Lejla Hrustic, Zainab Ashraf, Sarvin Es Haghi, Luis Rodriguez-Pino, Verena Waller, Hafsa Jabeen, A. Beyza Alp, Mehdi Behnam, Dana Shibli, Zofia Baranczuk-Turska, Zeeshan HaqSalah Qureshi, Adriana M. Strutt, Ali Jawaid^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Faculty of Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of individuals. However, the susceptibility of individuals to be impacted by the pandemic is variable, suggesting potential influences of specific factors related to participants' demographics, attitudes, and practices.

Objective: We aimed to identify the factors associated with psychological symptoms related to the effects of the first wave of the pandemic in a multicountry cohort of internet users.

Methods: This study anonymously screened 13,332 internet users worldwide for acute psychological symptoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic from March 29 to April 14, 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic amidst strict lockdown conditions. A total of 12,817 responses were considered valid. Moreover, 1077 participants from Europe were screened a second time from May 15 to May 30, 2020, to ascertain the presence of psychological effects after the ease down of restrictions.

Results: Female gender, pre-existing psychiatric conditions, and prior exposure to trauma were identified as notable factors associated with increased psychological symptoms during the first wave of COVID-19 (P<.001). The same factors, in addition to being related to someone who died due to COVID-19 and using social media more than usual, were associated with persistence of psychological disturbances in the limited second assessment of European participants after the restrictions had relatively eased (P<.001). Optimism, ability to share concerns with family and friends like usual, positive prediction about COVID-19, and daily exercise were related to fewer psychological symptoms in both assessments (P<.001).

Conclusions: This study highlights the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the worldwide level on the mental health of internet users and elucidates prominent associations with their demographics, history of psychiatric disease risk factors, household conditions, certain personality traits, and attitudes toward COVID-19.

Original language	English
Article number	e28736
Number of pages	19
Journal	JMIR mental health
Volume	8
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.2196/28736
Publication status	Published - Aug-2021

Keywords

COVID-19
Depression
General psychological disturbance
Global
Mental health
Pandemic
Posttraumatic stress disorder

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Factors Associated With Psychological Disturbances During the COVID-19 PandemicFinal publisher's version, 1.46 MBLicence: CC BY

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Plomecka, M., Gobbi, S., Neckels, R., Radzinski, P., Skorko, B., Lazzeri, S., Almazidou, K., Dedic, A., Bakalovic, A., Hrustic, L., Ashraf, Z., Haghi, S. E., Rodriguez-Pino, L., Waller, V., Jabeen, H., Alp, A. B., Behnam, M., Shibli, D., Baranczuk-Turska, Z., ... Jawaid, A. (2021). Factors associated with psychological disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic: Multicountry online study. JMIR mental health, 8(8), Article e28736. https://doi.org/10.2196/28736

@article{af16916382054aeea40bbc9a0fc605ca,

title = "Factors associated with psychological disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic: Multicountry online study",

abstract = "Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of individuals. However, the susceptibility of individuals to be impacted by the pandemic is variable, suggesting potential influences of specific factors related to participants' demographics, attitudes, and practices.Objective: We aimed to identify the factors associated with psychological symptoms related to the effects of the first wave of the pandemic in a multicountry cohort of internet users.Methods: This study anonymously screened 13,332 internet users worldwide for acute psychological symptoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic from March 29 to April 14, 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic amidst strict lockdown conditions. A total of 12,817 responses were considered valid. Moreover, 1077 participants from Europe were screened a second time from May 15 to May 30, 2020, to ascertain the presence of psychological effects after the ease down of restrictions.Results: Female gender, pre-existing psychiatric conditions, and prior exposure to trauma were identified as notable factors associated with increased psychological symptoms during the first wave of COVID-19 (P<.001). The same factors, in addition to being related to someone who died due to COVID-19 and using social media more than usual, were associated with persistence of psychological disturbances in the limited second assessment of European participants after the restrictions had relatively eased (P<.001). Optimism, ability to share concerns with family and friends like usual, positive prediction about COVID-19, and daily exercise were related to fewer psychological symptoms in both assessments (P<.001).Conclusions: This study highlights the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the worldwide level on the mental health of internet users and elucidates prominent associations with their demographics, history of psychiatric disease risk factors, household conditions, certain personality traits, and attitudes toward COVID-19.",

keywords = "COVID-19, Depression, General psychological disturbance, Global, Mental health, Pandemic, Posttraumatic stress disorder",

author = "Martyna Plomecka and Susanna Gobbi and Rachael Neckels and Piotr Radzinski and Beata Skorko and Samuel Lazzeri and Kristina Almazidou and Alisa Dedic and Asja Bakalovic and Lejla Hrustic and Zainab Ashraf and Haghi, {Sarvin Es} and Luis Rodriguez-Pino and Verena Waller and Hafsa Jabeen and Alp, {A. Beyza} and Mehdi Behnam and Dana Shibli and Zofia Baranczuk-Turska and Zeeshan Haq and Salah Qureshi and Strutt, {Adriana M.} and Ali Jawaid",

note = "Funding Information: This work has been supported by the Nencki-EMBL Center of Excellence for Neural Plasticity and Brain Disorders: BRAINCITY project carried out within the International Research Agendas program of the Foundation for Polish Science co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund. Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Luciana Armengol (Argentina); Professor Anthony Hannan, Maxine Mason, and Qi Hui Poh (Australia); Taria Brki? (Bosnia and Herzegovina); Barbara Levinsky (Brazil); Alexandra Schimmel and L?a Caya-Bissonnette (Canada); Claudia Valenzuela Rios (Chile); Marc Scherlinger, Alice Tondre, Lola Kouroma, and Morgane Roth (France); Katharina Schlerka, Lisa Garrelts, and Romy Seifert (Germany); Lena Heck (Germany/Switzerland); Varsha Hooda, Deepak Tanwar, and Chakradhar Yakkala (India); Professor Mohammad Es haghi and Sepehr Namirad (Iran); Darren Kelly (Ireland); Nour Mosawy (Jordan); Dayra Lorenzo (Mexico); Chirine Katrib (Lebanon/France); Usman Mukhtar, Uzair Jaswal, and Mubaris Bashir (Pakistan); Professor Kornelia Kedziora-Kornatowska, Milena Czarnocka, and Juli Davis (Poland); Ana Alexandra Moraru (Romania); Shoaib Jawaid (Saudi Arabia/United Arab Emirates); Myriam Merarchi (Singapore/France); Michelle McLuckie, Doman Obrist, Niharika Gaur, and Graciela Huber (Switzerland); Aurelia Muller (Taiwan/Germany/Switzerland); Burak Ozan (Turkey); Carmen Neagoe and Aleena Malik (United Kingdom); Anastasiia Timmer (Netherlands/United States); and Colette Rausch, Professor Paul Schulz, Professor Mo Salman, Saleha Tahir, Laura Luebbert, Sarish Khan, Rebecca Sager, Lupita Lozano, and American Physician Scientist Association (United States) for their dedicated help in data collection. We are also thankful to Lena Heck and Giuseppe Parente (University of Zurich) for technical support. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to Professor Selmira Brki? (Faculty of Medicine, University of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Professor Leszek Kaczmarek (Director, Nencki-EMBL BRAINCITY, Warsaw, Poland), University of Zurich Research Office, Zurich Cantonal Ethics Commission, and Texas Behavioral Health for their expedited review of the study procedures under extraordinary circumstances and for their organizational support. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Martyna Plomecka, Susanna Gobbi, Rachael Neckels, Piotr Radzinski, Beata Skorko, Samuel Lazzeri, Kristina Almazidou, Alisa Dedic, Asja Bakalovic, Lejla Hrustic, Zainab Ashraf, Sarvin Es Haghi, Luis Rodriguez-Pino, Verena Waller, Hafsa Jabeen, A Beyza Alp, Mehdi Behnam, Dana Shibli, Zofia Baranczuk-Turska, Ali Jawaid, Salah Qureshi, Adriana M Strutt, Ali Jawaid. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (https://mental.jmir.org), 19.08.2021. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Mental Health, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://mental.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.",

year = "2021",

month = aug,

doi = "10.2196/28736",

language = "English",

volume = "8",

journal = "JMIR mental health",

issn = "2368-7959",

publisher = "JMIR PUBLICATIONS, INC",

number = "8",

}

Plomecka, M, Gobbi, S, Neckels, R, Radzinski, P, Skorko, B, Lazzeri, S, Almazidou, K, Dedic, A, Bakalovic, A, Hrustic, L, Ashraf, Z, Haghi, SE, Rodriguez-Pino, L, Waller, V, Jabeen, H, Alp, AB, Behnam, M, Shibli, D, Baranczuk-Turska, Z, Haq, Z, Qureshi, S, Strutt, AM & Jawaid, A 2021, 'Factors associated with psychological disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic: Multicountry online study', JMIR mental health, vol. 8, no. 8, e28736. https://doi.org/10.2196/28736

TY - JOUR

T1 - Factors associated with psychological disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic

T2 - Multicountry online study

AU - Plomecka, Martyna

AU - Gobbi, Susanna

AU - Neckels, Rachael

AU - Radzinski, Piotr

AU - Skorko, Beata

AU - Lazzeri, Samuel

AU - Almazidou, Kristina

AU - Dedic, Alisa

AU - Bakalovic, Asja

AU - Hrustic, Lejla

AU - Ashraf, Zainab

AU - Haghi, Sarvin Es

AU - Rodriguez-Pino, Luis

AU - Waller, Verena

AU - Jabeen, Hafsa

AU - Alp, A. Beyza

AU - Behnam, Mehdi

AU - Shibli, Dana

AU - Baranczuk-Turska, Zofia

AU - Haq, Zeeshan

AU - Qureshi, Salah

AU - Strutt, Adriana M.

AU - Jawaid, Ali

N1 - Funding Information: This work has been supported by the Nencki-EMBL Center of Excellence for Neural Plasticity and Brain Disorders: BRAINCITY project carried out within the International Research Agendas program of the Foundation for Polish Science co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund. Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Luciana Armengol (Argentina); Professor Anthony Hannan, Maxine Mason, and Qi Hui Poh (Australia); Taria Brki? (Bosnia and Herzegovina); Barbara Levinsky (Brazil); Alexandra Schimmel and L?a Caya-Bissonnette (Canada); Claudia Valenzuela Rios (Chile); Marc Scherlinger, Alice Tondre, Lola Kouroma, and Morgane Roth (France); Katharina Schlerka, Lisa Garrelts, and Romy Seifert (Germany); Lena Heck (Germany/Switzerland); Varsha Hooda, Deepak Tanwar, and Chakradhar Yakkala (India); Professor Mohammad Es haghi and Sepehr Namirad (Iran); Darren Kelly (Ireland); Nour Mosawy (Jordan); Dayra Lorenzo (Mexico); Chirine Katrib (Lebanon/France); Usman Mukhtar, Uzair Jaswal, and Mubaris Bashir (Pakistan); Professor Kornelia Kedziora-Kornatowska, Milena Czarnocka, and Juli Davis (Poland); Ana Alexandra Moraru (Romania); Shoaib Jawaid (Saudi Arabia/United Arab Emirates); Myriam Merarchi (Singapore/France); Michelle McLuckie, Doman Obrist, Niharika Gaur, and Graciela Huber (Switzerland); Aurelia Muller (Taiwan/Germany/Switzerland); Burak Ozan (Turkey); Carmen Neagoe and Aleena Malik (United Kingdom); Anastasiia Timmer (Netherlands/United States); and Colette Rausch, Professor Paul Schulz, Professor Mo Salman, Saleha Tahir, Laura Luebbert, Sarish Khan, Rebecca Sager, Lupita Lozano, and American Physician Scientist Association (United States) for their dedicated help in data collection. We are also thankful to Lena Heck and Giuseppe Parente (University of Zurich) for technical support. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to Professor Selmira Brki? (Faculty of Medicine, University of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Professor Leszek Kaczmarek (Director, Nencki-EMBL BRAINCITY, Warsaw, Poland), University of Zurich Research Office, Zurich Cantonal Ethics Commission, and Texas Behavioral Health for their expedited review of the study procedures under extraordinary circumstances and for their organizational support. Publisher Copyright: © Martyna Plomecka, Susanna Gobbi, Rachael Neckels, Piotr Radzinski, Beata Skorko, Samuel Lazzeri, Kristina Almazidou, Alisa Dedic, Asja Bakalovic, Lejla Hrustic, Zainab Ashraf, Sarvin Es Haghi, Luis Rodriguez-Pino, Verena Waller, Hafsa Jabeen, A Beyza Alp, Mehdi Behnam, Dana Shibli, Zofia Baranczuk-Turska, Ali Jawaid, Salah Qureshi, Adriana M Strutt, Ali Jawaid. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (https://mental.jmir.org), 19.08.2021. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Mental Health, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://mental.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

PY - 2021/8

Y1 - 2021/8

N2 - Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of individuals. However, the susceptibility of individuals to be impacted by the pandemic is variable, suggesting potential influences of specific factors related to participants' demographics, attitudes, and practices.Objective: We aimed to identify the factors associated with psychological symptoms related to the effects of the first wave of the pandemic in a multicountry cohort of internet users.Methods: This study anonymously screened 13,332 internet users worldwide for acute psychological symptoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic from March 29 to April 14, 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic amidst strict lockdown conditions. A total of 12,817 responses were considered valid. Moreover, 1077 participants from Europe were screened a second time from May 15 to May 30, 2020, to ascertain the presence of psychological effects after the ease down of restrictions.Results: Female gender, pre-existing psychiatric conditions, and prior exposure to trauma were identified as notable factors associated with increased psychological symptoms during the first wave of COVID-19 (P<.001). The same factors, in addition to being related to someone who died due to COVID-19 and using social media more than usual, were associated with persistence of psychological disturbances in the limited second assessment of European participants after the restrictions had relatively eased (P<.001). Optimism, ability to share concerns with family and friends like usual, positive prediction about COVID-19, and daily exercise were related to fewer psychological symptoms in both assessments (P<.001).Conclusions: This study highlights the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the worldwide level on the mental health of internet users and elucidates prominent associations with their demographics, history of psychiatric disease risk factors, household conditions, certain personality traits, and attitudes toward COVID-19.

AB - Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of individuals. However, the susceptibility of individuals to be impacted by the pandemic is variable, suggesting potential influences of specific factors related to participants' demographics, attitudes, and practices.Objective: We aimed to identify the factors associated with psychological symptoms related to the effects of the first wave of the pandemic in a multicountry cohort of internet users.Methods: This study anonymously screened 13,332 internet users worldwide for acute psychological symptoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic from March 29 to April 14, 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic amidst strict lockdown conditions. A total of 12,817 responses were considered valid. Moreover, 1077 participants from Europe were screened a second time from May 15 to May 30, 2020, to ascertain the presence of psychological effects after the ease down of restrictions.Results: Female gender, pre-existing psychiatric conditions, and prior exposure to trauma were identified as notable factors associated with increased psychological symptoms during the first wave of COVID-19 (P<.001). The same factors, in addition to being related to someone who died due to COVID-19 and using social media more than usual, were associated with persistence of psychological disturbances in the limited second assessment of European participants after the restrictions had relatively eased (P<.001). Optimism, ability to share concerns with family and friends like usual, positive prediction about COVID-19, and daily exercise were related to fewer psychological symptoms in both assessments (P<.001).Conclusions: This study highlights the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the worldwide level on the mental health of internet users and elucidates prominent associations with their demographics, history of psychiatric disease risk factors, household conditions, certain personality traits, and attitudes toward COVID-19.

KW - COVID-19

KW - Depression

KW - General psychological disturbance

KW - Global

KW - Mental health

KW - Pandemic

KW - Posttraumatic stress disorder

U2 - 10.2196/28736

DO - 10.2196/28736

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85113343839

SN - 2368-7959

VL - 8

JO - JMIR mental health

JF - JMIR mental health

IS - 8

M1 - e28736

ER -

Factors associated with psychological disturbances during the COVID-19 pandemic: Multicountry online study

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