Concerns, quality of life, access to care and productivity of the general population during the first 8 weeks of the coronavirus lockdown in Belgium and the Netherlands

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has a disruptive impact on our society. We therefore conducted a population survey to describe: 1) stress, concerns and quality of life 2) access to healthcare and cancelled/delayed healthcare and 3) productivity during the first 8 weeks of the coronavirus lockdown in the general population. Methods: An online survey was conducted in a representative sample after 8 weeks of the coronavirus lockdown in Belgium and the Netherlands. The survey included questions about stress, concerns, quality of life delayed/cancelled medical care and productivity loss using validated questionnaires. Results: In total, 2099 Belgian and 2058 Dutch respondents completed the survey with a mean age of 46.4 and 42.0 years, respectively. Half of the respondents were female in both countries. A small proportion tested positive for COVID-19, 1.4% vs 4.7%, respectively. The majority of respondents with a medical condition was worried about their current health state due to the pandemic (53%) vs (63%), respectively. Respondents experienced postponed/cancelled care (26%) and were concerned about the availability of medication (32%) for both countries. Productivity losses due to the COVID-19 restrictions were calculated in absenteeism (36%) and presenteeism (30%) for Belgium, and (19%) and (35%) for the Netherlands. Most concerns and productivity losses were reported by respondents with children <12 years, respondents aged 18-35 and respondents with an (expected) COVID-19 infection. Conclusions: This study describes stress, quality of life, medical resource loss and productivity losses in Belgium and the Netherlands after 8 weeks of coronavirus lockdown. The results underline the burden on society.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown Measures on Quality of Life among Italian General Population

“…According to Horesh and co-workers [ 25 ], instead, older age seemed to act as a protective factor for psychological health and this could be attributed to their richer life experience [ 46 ] and a possible reduced fear of illness and death, despite the fact that the elderly are constantly being identified as a high-risk population [ 26 , 47 , 48 , 49 ]. Middle adults showed less impact on mental health but greatest dissatisfaction with the availability of financial resources, accessibility and quality of health and social care [ 26 , 27 ], the domestic environment conditions, access to information and sense of safety for their own health regarding to the physical environment, and to the possibility to access to means of transport in safety, compared to younger and older ones.…”

“…During the pandemic, Italian hospitals were converted into COVID hospitals, and entire wards and surgeries were closed, making it difficult to access for all those with chronic or acute non-COVID-19 medical conditions. Furthermore, as assumed by Van Ballegoijen and co-workers [ 27 ], patients could have been anxious to visit their physician due to fear of infection or to avoid further burdening the healthcare system. This could lead to secondary healthcare problems, such as delay in diagnosis of critical medical conditions and exacerbation of existing health conditions.…”

“…There are limited international studies that have investigated how severe the impact of COVID-19 pandemic is on QoL and to our knowledge there have been no studies on the Italian population [ 23 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. We believe that the assessment of QoL represents an important indicator of global health, which allows us to grasp the state of health of a population in a multidimensional way, especially in this particular moment in which all the dimensions of life have been disrupted.…”

“…Horesh, Kapel Lev-Ari, and Hasson-Ohayon [ 25 ] also reported higher stress levels and lower QoL for women, younger participants, and for people with pre-existing chronic illness. However, to our knowledge, there have been no studies investigating QoL in Italian populations during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 23 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

“…In addition to sociodemographic variables, it has been suggested that other factors might influence QoL during pandemics, such as the difficulty in accessing healthcare services [ 26 , 27 ] and social isolation [ 29 ]. Van Ballegooijen and colleagues [ 27 ] described considerable levels of stress, a lower QoL, and concerns about access to healthcare during the first eight weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown in the Netherlands and Belgium. With respect to the difficulty in accessing healthcare, a Chinese study showed that the relevant index of QoL decreased with increasing age, due to the presence of chronic diseases in this segment of the population [ 26 ].…”