Typhoon Eye Effect vs. Ripple Effect: The Role of Family Size on the Mental Health under the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan

Abstract

BackgroundThe recent outbreak of COVID-19 impacts the mental health of people worldwide. The mental conditions and the associated predictors of adults in Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world, during the COVID-19 remains understudied. We aim to investigate distress, anxiety and overall mental health and their associated predictors among Pakistani adults in this pandemic. We specifically examine the mental health issues based on the distance to the epicenter, a predictor that has revealed opposing evidence in other countries based on the theories of typhoon eye effect and ripple effect. The samples consist of 601 adults who were surveyed online about 2.5 months into the outbreak across Pakistan with varying distance to the epicenter of COVID-19 of Karachi in Pakistan.ResultsThe results showed that 9.2% and 19.0% of the participants surpassed the cut-off of distress and anxiety disorders, respectively. Overall, the distance to the epicenter positively predicted the mental health of adults in Pakistan, and family size negatively moderated this effect. The distance to the epicenter negatively predicted distress and anxiety disorders for adults in large families, which are quite common in Pakistan.ConclusionThe evidence of the study interestingly finds the prediction of the mental health of people by their distance to the epicenter depends on the family. The evidence of this study can help to provide the initial indicator for mental health care providers to screen vulnerable groups in Pakistan, a populous country that continues to struggle to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early evidence and predictors of mental distress of adults one month in the COVID-19 epidemic in Brazil

“…There are possible explanations from many perspectives, including the meaning and fulfillment associated with work, more potential social interactions from going out to work, and less time and dependence on information from online and social media. In terms of future research, this study finds that the predictors of distress and their effect during the Covid-19 pandemic In Brazil differ from that in other countries, such as Peru, China, Iran, and Pakistan [ 6 , 19 , 25 , 26 ], suggesting we need to identify useful predictors of mental health in individual countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, because countries “vary in their medical systems, the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), cultures, labor and employment conditions, the policies of lockdown, the ease of working from home and maintaining a living in a pandemic, and the information in both mainstream and social media, to name just a few” [ 6 ].…”