Different Responses to Stress, Health Practices and Self-care during COVID-19 Lockdown: A Stratified Analysis

Abstract

The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to analyze the differential impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown (3rd April 2020) on stress, health practices, and self-care activities across different Hispanic countries, age range and gender groups. 1082 participants from Spain, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador took part in this study. Irrespective of the country, and controlling for income level, young people, especially females, suffered a greater level of stress, perceived the situation as more severe, showed less adherence to health guidelines and reported lower levels of health consciousness, in comparison to their male peers and older groups. However, in the case of self-care, it seems that older and female groups are generally more involved in self-care activities and adopt more healthy daily routines. These results are mostly similar between Colombia, Ecuador, and Spain. However, Chile showed some different tendencies, as males reported higher levels of healthy daily routines and better adherence to health guidelines compared to females and people over the age of 60. Differences between countries, genders and age ranges should be considered in order to improve health recommendations and adherence to guidelines. It would also be crucial to identify vulnerable groups to promote the adoption of health behaviors that may help in the development of effective public health strategies. Future studies should be addressed to explore the possible causations of such differences in more cultural-distant samples and at later stages of the current outbreak.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on the mental health status of Indian undergraduate health professional students

“…We found that the gender of the undergraduate health professional students did not contribute as a risk factor for the development of stress in the COVID-19 lockdown period. In contrast, in a cross-sectional study done by Bermejo-Martins et al, stress level was higher for females and they perceived the situation of lockdown as more severe (10). Also, reports from Raja et al found the majority of severe and moderately stressed dental undergraduate students during COVID-19 lockdown were female students (11).…”

Knowledge, Perceived Self-care Ability, and Health Behavior in New Normal Era among Adults in Congested Communities of Surabaya, Indonesia: Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic Situation

“…A study of 1,508 participants in general population showed that 66-80% of respondents complied with self-care recommendations, therefore the implementation of pandemic care program is recommended (Galindo-Vazquez, et al, 2020). In the contrary, another age and gender-specific study of 1,082 respondents in four countries in Europe showed that young female showed less adherence to health guidelines because they experienced a greater level of stress and perceived the pandemic situation as more severe, but the older female groups were generally more involved in self-care activities and adopted more healthy daily routines; therefore genders and age ranges should be considered in determining COVID-19 prevention strategies in order to improve self-care and adherence to health guidelines (Bermejo-Martins, et al, 2021). The higher perception of stress, the fewer self-care activities are adopted, and in turn the lower the beneficial effects on wellbeing because self-care partially mediates the relationship between stress and wellbeing during COVID-19 confinement in the general population, and age affects this relationship also (Luis, et al, 2021).…”

Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic-related Perceived Stress Scale (PSS–10–C)

“…2 The instrument's relevance is evidenced by several citations of using the PSS-C-10 in the world context. [3][4][5] The PSS-10-C presented a one-dimensional structure, without a confirmatory analysis factorial, and high internal consistency; however, the need to make adjustments in PSS-10-C was noted. 1 Since perspective focused on the writing of the items, a review of the PSS-10-C suggested that the Spanish item 6 ('I have felt unable to face the things I have to do to control the possible infection') could partly explain that the factorial solution was not wholly satisfactory in explaining less than 50% of the variance.…”