Protective and Risk Factors in Adjusting to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Croatia

Flander, Gordana Buljan; Galić, Romana; Đapić, Mia Roje; Raguž, Ana; Prijatelj, Krešimir

doi:10.24869/spsih.2020.285

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…All these factors seem to apply to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research has also indicated that psychological reactions during epidemics are likely to be influenced by personal dispositions, individual coping strategies, and one's perceived control over the situation, and social support which is in line with most stress theories [3,8,9]. Coping style may play an important role in mediating psychological symptoms after stressful or traumatic events [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Predictors of Adults’ Mental Health During Initial Stage of Covid-19 Pandemic in Croatia

Maršanić¹,

Prijatelj

Raguž³

et al. 2023

Arch. Psychiatry Res.

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Besides causing serious threats to people’s physical health and lives, pandemics can lead to psychological distress. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health among adults in Croatia and its association with sociodemographic factors, perceptions of pandemic, locus of control, coping with stress and perceived social support. A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted using a snowball sampling technique. The online survey collected information on sociodemographics, chronic health conditions, self-isolation measure, perception of COVID-19, mental health status, locus of control, coping with stress and perception of social support. Mental health status was assessed by the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). A total of 1482 participants (252 males and 1230 females) completed the study. The mean age of the participants was 33.3 ± 12.2 years, 43 % of the participants had elevated levels of anxiety and 18 % suffered from severe and extremely severe anxiety, 33 % had elevated levels of depression and 12 % suffered from severe and extremely severe depression, and 55 % had elevated levels of stress with 13 % suffering from severe and extremely severe stress. The strongest predictors of mental health symptoms were coping with stress, locus of control, and perceived social support. These results highlight the necessity of implementing psychological interventions during the pandemic to improve the mental health of the adults and vulnerable groups in particular that should include identified factors associated with better mental health status such as coping with stress focused on problem, social diversion and social support.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Predictors of Adults’ Mental Health During Initial Stage of Covid-19 Pandemic in Croatia

Maršanić¹,

Prijatelj

Raguž³

et al. 2023

Arch. Psychiatry Res.

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“…Furthermore, most participants did not have a significant fear of COVID-19 in the first assessment, which is consistent with the results of other studies with persons with SMI (Muruganandam et al, 2020), although the fear of COVID-19 intensified over the time. According to published studies, the fear of COVID-19 disease seems to be similar or a bit lower compared to the general population (Buljan Flander et al, 2020; Roy et al, 2020; Wolf et al, 2020). The explanation for this may be a greater focus to the internal then external reality in persons with SMI and the existence of social isolation in patients due to the mental illness itself (Slade, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and earthquake on mental health of persons with severe mental illness: A survey study among people receiving community mental health care versus treatment as usual in Croatia

Levaj

Medved

Grubišin

et al. 2022

Int J Soc Psychiatry

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to the disruption of mental health services in most countries. Croatia has been developing and strengthening its mental health system, including the introduction of community mental health teams (CMHT) for persons with severe mental illness (SMI), whose implementation was ongoing during the pandemic through the RECOVER-E project. Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the differences in mental health outcomes, perceived social support and healthcare utilization in the group of participants receiving treatment as usual (TAU group) compared to the group receiving TAU and additional care by the CMHT (CMHT group) during the COVID-19 pandemic and two earthquakes. Method: This is a cross-sectional survey administered among 90 participants with SMI at two time points: in May/June 2020 (first COVID-19 wave, earthquake) and in December 2020/January 2021 (second COVID-19 wave, earthquake). Results: A significantly larger proportion of participants from the CMHT group visited the general practitioners in both waves of COVID-19 (first wave: CMHT 72.1%, TAU 44.2%, p = .009; second wave: CMHT 91.1%, TAU 64.1%, p = .003), as well as psychiatric services in the second wave (CMHT 95.3%, TAU 79.5%, p = .028). The use of long-acting injectables was also more frequent in the CMHT group ( p = .039). Furthermore, analysis of the first wave showed higher perceived support of significant others ( p = .004) in the CMHT group. We did not identify any differences in mental health outcomes between groups in either wave. Conclusions: While mental health outcomes did not differ between TAU and CMHT group, people in CMHT used services and treatments more frequently than those in TAU during the pandemic, which may indicate that CMHT services enable the continuity and accessibility of care for people with SMI under the circumstances where standard care is interruped (for example pandemic, disaster conditions).

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“…Our results both confirm some previous findings and add further novel findings to the literature. Previous studies have indicated that gender (Buljan Flander et al, 2020;Dryhurst et al, 2020;Galasso et al, 2020;Gerhold, 2020;Szabo et al, 2020;Alsharawy et al, 2021;Rana et al, 2021), age (Buljan Flander et al, 2020;Galasso et al, 2020;Gerhold, 2020;Szabo et al, 2020;Bechard et al, 2021;Laires et al, 2021), chronic conditions (Laires et al, 2021;Ricotta et al, 2021), and region (Gerhold, 2020;Parsons Leigh et al, 2020) can explain some of the variability in different COVID-19 threat beliefs. In line with the previous findings, these variables were significant predictors of COVID-19 threat beliefs in the first step of our regression analyses, accounting for 4.4% of the variance, with age and chronic conditions remaining significant predictors in the last step.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We examined how individual differences in demographics, personality, and other related beliefs contribute to COVID-19 threat beliefs. Based on previous findings (Buljan Flander et al, 2020;Dryhurst et al, 2020;Galasso et al, 2020;Gerhold, 2020;Szabo et al, 2020;Alsharawy et al, 2021;Bechard et al, 2021;Laires et al, 2021;Rana et al, 2021;Ricotta et al, 2021), we expected women, older people, and people with chronic diseases to believe that COVID-19 poses more risk, and we expected regional differences in beliefs about COVID-19 risks (Gerhold, 2020;Parsons Leigh et al, 2020). Furthermore, we expected that COVID-19 threat beliefs will be related to personality factors as operationalized using the HEXACO model (Lazarević et al, 2021;Zettler et al, 2022).…”

Section: This Studymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Therefore, gender and age differences in COVID-19 threat beliefs have been examined worldwide. Studies have found that women and older adults perceive and believe COVID-19 is a more serious threat and are more afraid of it (Buljan Flander et al, 2020;Dryhurst et al, 2020;Galasso et al, 2020;Gerhold, 2020;Szabo et al, 2020;Alsharawy et al, 2021;Bechard et al, 2021;Laires et al, 2021;Rana et al, 2021). Another important factor influencing COVID-19 threat beliefs is a chronic disease diagnosis, since people with chronic conditions can be more likely to become severely ill from COVID-19 (CDC, 2021).…”

Section: Demographic Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Relationship Between COVID-19 Threat Beliefs and Individual Differences in Demographics, Personality, and Related Beliefs

Butković

Galešić

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Individual differences in demographics, personality, and other related beliefs are associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) threat beliefs. However, the relative contributions of these different types of individual differences to COVID-19 threat beliefs are not known. In this study, a total of 1,700 participants in Croatia (68% female; age 18–86 years) completed a survey that included questions about COVID-19 risks, questions about related beliefs including vaccination beliefs, trust in the health system, trust in scientists, and trust in the political system, the HEXACO 60 personality inventory, as well as demographic questions about gender, age, chronic diseases, and region. We used hierarchical regression analyses to examine the proportion of variance explained by demographics, personality, and other related beliefs. All three types of individual differences explained a part of the variance of COVID-19 threat beliefs, with related beliefs explaining the largest part. Personality facets explained a slightly larger amount of variance than personality factors. These results have implications for communication about COVID-19.

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Protective and Risk Factors in Adjusting to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Croatia

Abstract: Poliklinika za zaštitu djece i mladih Grada Zagreba; 2 Gradski ured za socijalnu zaštitu i osobe s invaliditetom,

Cited by 5 publications

References 22 publications

Predictors of Adults’ Mental Health During Initial Stage of Covid-19 Pandemic in Croatia

Predictors of Adults’ Mental Health During Initial Stage of Covid-19 Pandemic in Croatia

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and earthquake on mental health of persons with severe mental illness: A survey study among people receiving community mental health care versus treatment as usual in Croatia

Relationship Between COVID-19 Threat Beliefs and Individual Differences in Demographics, Personality, and Related Beliefs

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