Risk factors for psychological distress during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Israel: Loneliness, age, gender, and health status play an important role

Abstract

Objective. Research on the psychological toll of the COVID-19 pandemic is being conducted in various countries. This study aimed to examine risk factors for mental health problems among Israeli adults during this crisis. Methods. A total of 204 participants took part in the study. They completed self-report questionnaires assessing perceived stress, anxiety, quality of life, and various questions related to quarantine, pre-existing health issues, and worries related to the virus. The study took place during the last two weeks of March 2020. Results. The majority of participants reported relatively high levels of perceived stress and corona-related worries, but low levels of anxiety. Female gender, younger age, corona-related loneliness, and pre-existing chronic illness were all related to higher levels of psychological distress and lower levels of quality of life. Conclusions. While considering the preliminary nature of these results, the current study highlights risk factors for psychological distress in light of the corona pandemic. Attention should be given to sociodemographic variables that were identified as related to psychological distress, as well as to the important role of loneliness, when screening and treating people during this crisis. More research is needed in order to fully understand the scope and correlates of psychological difficulties during these challenging times. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Studies on the psychological implications of COVID-19 are being conducted in many countries, showing a wide variety of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and impaired functioning. In addition, some studies have begun identifying risk factors for psychological distress, including sociodemographic and health-related factors. What does this study add? The present study adds to existing COVID-19 literature, by presenting findings on the pandemic's mental health implications, and their risk factors, in Israel.

Psychological Distress during COVID-19 Pandemic Distancing Precautions in Brazil

“…However, people who reported being part of a risk group had less distress, contrary to findings of others [17,26]. Although this result could be spurious, alternatively, it could reflect a tendency of people who do not consider themselves be in major biological risk to feel more deprived in quarantine.…”

“…Mental health is supposedly more vulnerable now than before coronavirus not only because anyone can be infected and therefore have a potential traumatic experience of being severely ill, but also because of multiple parallel factors, like social deprivation, reduction of liberty, economic losses and higher exposure to adverse home environments [25]. This collective trauma exposure need to be understood in order to be cared and mitigated [26].…”

The vital role of health psychology in the response to COVID‐19

“…To date, we have published 17 COVID-19 papers (Bacon & Corr, 2020;Gibson Miller et al, 2020;Grover, McClelland, & Furnham, 2020;Horesh, Kapel Lev-Ari, & Hasson-Ohayon, 2020;Howard, 2020;Lades, Laffan, Daly, & Delaney, 2020;Lauri Korajlija & Jokic-Begic, 2020;Lin et al, 2020;Marinthe, Brown, Delouvee, & Jolley, 2020;McElroy et al, 2020;Niepel, Kranz, Borgonovi, Emslander, & Greiff, 2020;Norman, Wilding, & Conner, 2020;Olagoke, Olagoke, & Hughes, 2020;Rubaltelli, Tedaldi, Orabona, & Scrimin, 2020;Shevlin et al, 2020;Williams et al, 2020), which have addressed a variety of topics including: the use theoretical models (COM-B and social cognition models) to understand and predict COVID-19 health behaviours (Gibson Miller et al, 2020;Lin et al, 2020;Norman et al, 2020), risk perception (Niepel et al, 2020;Olagoke et al, 2020), and psychological distress (Horesh et al, 2020;Lades et al, 2020;McElroy et al, 2020;Shevlin et al, 2020). presented a systematic method for rapidly responding to priority SARS-CoV-2 policy questions.…”

Perceived stress and generalized anxiety in the Indian population due to lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

“…The government of India declared a 21-day nationwide 'lockdown' from 25 th March 2020, which was subsequently extended in phases till 31 st May 2020, to break the cycle of spread of infection. The lockdown was in tune with the initiatives taken by many countries across the globe against this pandemic 2,3 .…”

“…Researchers, in the past and during this present crisis, have tried to address the psychological stress in healthcare providers 7-9 and the general population 2,3,10 . The present study, conducted during the fourth phase of nationwide lockdown, from 18 th to 31 st May 2020, attempts to examine levels of perceived stress and generalized anxiety disorders and causal stressors among the Indian population related to the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown.…”