Financial Difficulties Correlate With Mental Health Among Bangladeshi Residents Amid COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings From a Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a global threat which has challenged mental resilience and impacted the psychological well-being of people across all age groups globally. The present study aimed to investigate how financial difficulties during the pandemic correlate with mental health among residents of Bangladesh.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 4,020 residents from different parts of Bangladesh between July and September 2020, during a period of elevated risk of COVID-19 infection. A self-reported online questionnaire comprising socio-demographic, financial difficulties and psychometric measures (to assess depression, anxiety and stress) was used to gather information from participants. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the factors associated with mental health consequences.Results: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress in the sample were 71.1%, 62.3%, and 56.7%, respectively. Levels of depression, anxiety, and stress were significantly higher among participants who reported female sex, being unmarried, smaller families, higher monthly family income, poor self-perceived health status, living near people who had been infected by COVID-19, probability of decreased income, food scarcity (both during the pandemic and in the future) and the possibility of unemployment. However, due to the nature of the cross-sectional study performed with a convenience sampling method, the causal relationship between variables cannot be justified.Conclusions: After several months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh, more than half of the respondents rated their mental health concerns as moderate to severe. The findings highlight the contributing factors of poor mental health which warrant the creation of interventions that address the economic, financial and mental health impacts of the pandemic.

Factors Associated With Psychological Outcomes Among Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Health Care Workers Against COVID-19 Infection in Bangladesh

“…This study revealed that except for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, participants living in urban areas had a significantly lower risk of all psychological symptoms among vaccinated HCWs. These findings were in line with prior Bangladeshi studies ( 15 , 53 , 54 ), which claimed that HCWs working in urban areas had a higher rate of psychological outcomes. In a cross-sectional survey of 3,646 adults in Bangladesh, Avedin et al ( 55 ) discovered that 81% of urban participants wanted to be vaccinated.…”

Financial Disruption and Psychological Underpinning During COVID-19: A Review and Research Agenda

“…Psychological stress is also experienced in people during COVID-19 periods, other than the stress from financial challenges, the career change intentions and pressures of a workforce reduction are putting shadows on the financial wellbeing ( Chen and Chen, 2021 ). The depression due to financial distress can lead to depression and ultimately to social problems of joblessness, divorce, living in a joint family, food scarcity, excessive sleep, and smoking ( Islam et al, 2021 ; Siddique et al, 2021 ).…”

Stronger association of perceived health with socio-economic inequality during COVID-19 pandemic than pre-pandemic era

“…Conversely, adherence to physical distancing is affected by anxiety and the prospect of economic losses by unemployment [5]. Researches of mental health in community population during the COVID-19 have reported moderate level of stress [6,7], higher scores of depressive symptoms [6][7][8][9], anxiety [6][7][8][9], and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder [6]. Further, exposure of multiple waves of pandemic results in continual changes of risk perception, healthcare service use, and financial expenditure over time [10,11].…”

“…In terms of the mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, associations were found between the perceived mental health status versus physical health [12], mental factors of health overconfidence [19], selfcompassion [20] and compassion from others [20], social factors of support from community [12,21] and anticipated deterioration in social cohesion and security [22]. In addition, demographic factors of age [9], sex (male [6] or female [7,9]), marital status (single [6,7] or divorced [6]), familial size [7], type [6] and strength [12] of religious beliefs are associated with perceived mental health status. Further, socioeconomic position of current unemployment [8,12], risks of unemployment [6,7], lower monthly household income [6,8,12], and risk of reduced income [7] are related to poor mental health.…”