Mental Health Symptoms, Binge Drinking, and the Experience of Abuse During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Mexico

Abstract

Background: The health crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic is causally linked to negative mental health symptoms in the same way as other diseases such as Ebola.Objective: The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationship between mental health symptoms, binge drinking, and the experience of abuse during the COVID-19 lockdown.Method: We surveyed 9,361 participants, all Mexican, with an average age of 33 years old (SD = 10.86). In this group of people, we found out that 59% were single (5,523), 71% were women (6,693). Forty-six percentage were complying with lockdown procedures (4,286), 50% were partially complying (4,682), and 4% were not complying at all (393). The invitation to participate was open from April 24th to April 30th during the second stage of the pandemic in Mexico, in 2020, characterized by voluntary complete lockdown staying at home. Thus, we used a cross-sectional online survey design to assess mental health risk factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was available on a WebApp designed by Linux®, PHP®, HTML®, CSS®, and JavaScript®. We calculated descriptive and inferential analysis to describe the mental health average distribution as a function of the lockdown, binge drinking, and experience of abuse. To calculate the reliability and validation of the subscales, we used Cronbach's Alpha and Factor Loading. We run the confirmatory factor loading analysis, and we described the relationship between each latent variable and its item factor load, obtained through structural modeling equations, derived from 179 iterations and 207 parameters (t[1,171] = 28,079.418, p < 0.001). We got a CFI of 0.947, a TLC of 0.940, an RMSEA of 0.049 (0.049–0.050), and an SRMR of 0.048.Findings: The results indicated that reported attitudes such as avoidance, sadness, withdrawal, anger, and anxiety were associated with acute stress, which was linked to an anxiety condition caused by uncertainty about achieving or maintaining overall good health.Discussion and Prospects: People in lockdown mentioned a sudden increase in alcohol consumption. They lived episodes of physical and emotional abuse, in contrast with those who stated that they did not go into lockdown or consume alcohol, or experienced abuse.Limitations: Further studies should diagnose mental health conditions as part of the impact of COVID-19, ensure their follow-up, and assess the effect of providing remote psychological care. There is a need to explore methods to curb the increase in the number of people affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mexican Population: A Systematic Review

“…There were 10 articles excluded due to their study methodology, not being related to the main objective, not having enough data or because they were reviews. After a meticulous review of each article, 15 studies met the inclusion criteria [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

“…Anxiety symptoms were analyzed in 11 out of the 15 studies [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 19 , 22 , 23 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], with a variation in the prevalence of anxiety symptoms from 11.9% to 93.7%. In Pérez-Cano et al [ 13 ], 48.8% of individuals had anxiety from mild to very severe associated with the COVID-19 pandemic; moreover, 18.6% of these also experienced other symptoms such as stress from moderate to very severe.…”

“…Finally, many factors were associated with higher levels of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, such as being female [ 13 , 16 , 19 , 22 , 23 ], younger age [ 16 , 22 ], history of direct or indirect contact with a COVID-19 confirmed case [ 16 , 23 ] and the presence of specific physical symptoms [ 16 ]. However, in some studies, no differences between genders or age concerning anxiety were identified [ 14 , 17 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

“…Of the total studies included, nine analyzed stress levels [ 13 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], and three evaluated psychological distress [ 14 , 16 , 21 ]. The prevalence of stress-related symptoms was >19%.…”

Screening Tool for Mental Health Problems During COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychometrics and Associations With Sex, Grieving, Contagion, and Seeking Psychological Care

“…They reported 37.54% suffering from stress, 38.12% from anxiety, and 34.31% from depression and pointed out COVID-19 as a potential public mental health problem for the global community. In Mexico, Morales-Chainé et al (2020, 2021a reported high frequencies of stress, sadness, and anxiety symptoms according to an evaluation of 33,044 participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. These studies reported that mental health symptoms have varied due to sex, COVID-19 condition, alcohol abuse, and suffering from abuse.…”