A longitudinal study on the emotional impact cause by the covid-19 pandemic quarantine on general population

CANET-JURIC, LORENA; ANDRÉS, MARÍA LAURA; DEL VALLE, MACARENA VERÓNICA; LÓPEZ-MORALES, HERNÁN; POÓ, FERNANDO; GALLI, JUAN IGNACIO; YERRO-AVINCETTO, MATÍAS; URQUIJO, SEBASTIÁN

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Psychological Reactions to the Pandemic

Frontiers

Lugar: Lausanne; Año: 2021; p. 115 - 131

COVID-19 pandemic represents, not only a public physical health emergency, but amental health serious problem as well. However, little is known about the psychologicalimpact of the quarantine during this pandemic. The aim of this study is to assess theemotional impact of the lockdown measures imposed by the Argentinian governmentto fight the virus. For this, a survey was distributed on social network. We surveyedthe Argentinian general population twice: 2 days after the mandatory quarantine started(time 1), and 2 weeks later (time 2). Anxiety levels were assessed using the State-TraitAnxiety Inventory; depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck DepressionInventory-II; and affect was assessed using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale.A total of 6057 people answered both surveys. In addition, different socio-demographicfactors were considered, such as risk factors for COVID-19, age, gender, educationallevel, variation in family income due to quarantine, number of children, whether they haveolder adults in charge or not and the number of hours viewing information about COVID-19. Statistically significant variations were observed between the two time points. Theeffect size, however, was very small. Depression tends to increase slightly, while levels ofanxiety and affect (positive and negative) tend to decrease. Also, some slight differencesrelated to the socio-demographic factors were found. Findings suggests that sustainingthe lockdown measures could have a larger effect on mental health in the long term. Itis necessary to continue monitoring emotional distress and other related mental healthproblems on the general population. It is also necessary to create programs aimed atpromoting mental health, and to distribute information about it.