Psychological distress associated with COVID-19 quarantine: Latent profile analysis, outcome prediction and mediation analysis

FERNÁNDEZ, RODRIGO S.; CRIVELLI, LUCIA; GUIMET, NAHUEL MAGRATH; ALLEGRI, RICARDO F.; PEDREIRA, MARIA E.

JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2020 vol. 277 p. 75 - 84

0165-0327

Background.Mental health of the population during COVID-19 quarantine could be at risk. Previousstudies in short quarantines, found mood-related and anxiety symptomatology. Herewe aimed to characterize the subtypes of psychological distress associated withquarantine, assess its prevalence, explore risk/protective factors, and possiblemechanisms.Methods.Online cross-sectional data (n=4408) was collected during the Argentine quarantine,between 1st-17th April 2020 along a small replication study (n=644). Psychologicaldistress clusters were determined using latent profile analysis on a wide-range ofsymptoms using the complete Brief-Symptom Inventory-53. Multinomial and Elasticnetregression were performed to identify risk/protective factors among traitmeasures(Personality and Resilience) and state-measures (COVID-19 related fear andcoping-skills).Results.Three latent-classes defined by symptom severity level were identified. The majority ofindividuals were classified in the mild (40.9%) and severe classes (41.0%). Participantsreported elevated symptoms of Phobic-Anxiety (41.3%), Anxiety (31.8%), Depression(27.5%), General-Distress (27.1%), Obsession-Compulsion (25.1%) and Hostility(13.7%). Logistic-regressions analyses mainly revealed that women, young individuals,having a previous psychiatric diagnosis or trauma, having high levels of trait4neuroticism and COVID-related fear, were those at greater risk of psychologicaldistress. In contrast, adults, being married, exercising, having upper-class income,having high levels of trait-resilience and coping-skills, were the most protected.Mediation analysis, showed that state-measures mediated the association betweentrait-measures and class-membership.Conclusions.Quarantine was associated intense psychological distress. Attention should be given toCOVID-19-related fear and coping-skills as they act as potential mediators in emotionalsuffering during quarantine.