ABSTRACT
Background: This study aimed to explore the lockdown experience on a sample of university students during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, focusing on the degree of confidence in the information received about the pandemic, the perceived health risk related to COVID-19, the psychological experiences related to quarantine, and the opinions regarding distance learning and the measures to adopt after the total lockdown. More specifically, we hypothesized that living in an area with more restrictions significantly contributes to accentuating the negative psychological impact of the quarantine experience. Furthermore, we assumed that a high perception of risk and a high fear of contracting the virus are significantly associated with more negative feelings during the lockdown. Conversely, adherence to pandemic containment measures and confidence in the information received on COVID-19 are predictors of positive emotions. Methods: 655 university students completed a battery of standardized questionnaires between April 22 and May 1, 2020. The data was analyzed through univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis. Results: The students showed to be highly informed about the pandemic and confident regarding the information received about the virus. Furthermore, they had a good perception of their risk of contracting COVID-19. Overall, the results highlighted a significant psychological impact of the lockdown. Students reported greater feelings of sadness (51.3%), nervousness (64.6%), and irritability (57%) than usual, with increased ruminations (70.9%). Furthermore, difficulty concentrating (55.9%), sleeping (54.5%), eating disorders (73.6%), tachycardia (65%), and a tendency to cry (65%) were also reported. Multiple regression suggests that female and younger students who lived in areas with a higher rate of contagion ("red zones") experienced more negative feelings related to quarantine. Moreover, high levels of perceived susceptibility and less compliance with government measures were associated with negative psychological experiences. Conclusions: These results show that university students represent a vulnerable population, and specific interventions are needed to protect their psychological wellbeing during the pandemic. It would be interesting to evaluate the psychological impact of the subsequent waves of contagion due to the persistence of the pandemic's stressful event.
ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 disease quickly spread all over the world starting from Wuhan, China in December 2019.In Italy too, the lockdown was necessary from March to May 2020 to contain the exponential increase in infections. The pandemic outbreak has significantly affected the psychological wellbeing of the general population. However, according to the recent literature, healthcare workers were subject to greater stress and emotional impact due to a number of factors: active role in assisting COVID-19 patients, increased risk of infection, fear of infecting families, social stigma, exhausting working conditions. For this reason, we aimed to evaluate the psychological impact of the emergency in a group of Italian health workers. Methods: We examined the psychological discomfort, depression, anxiety and stress experienced by health workers in Italy during the outbreak spike through the use of IES, BAI and BDI-II tests and compared them together with the sample's demographic characteristics as well as several measures strictly related to direct and indirect Covid-19 experiences. Results: From 20th April to 4th May 2020, 96 healthcare workers [60 female, 36 male, median age 46 (28-70)] were invited to participate to the integrated self-administered questionnaire. The results of the IES test were in 42 (44%) cases not clinically significant while in 19 (20%), 9 (9%) and 26 (27%) there was a light, moderate and severe emergency impact respectively. The BAI test indicated a state of anxiety in 76 (79%), 14 (15%) and 6 (6%) respectively as mild, moderate and high. The BDI-II test indicated depression in 71 (74%), 12 (13%), 6 (6%) and 7 (7%) as low, mild, moderate and severe, respectively. The results of the IES and BAI test had a Pearson correlation index of 0.81, while between IES and BDI-II was 0.71. A multiple linear regression analysis between the dependent variable IES and the independent variables BAI and BDI-II showed an adjusted R-square index of 0.66 (p<0.000001). Conclusions: Applied test results show likely effectiveness in assessing the emotional impact of the COVID-19 emergency. Moreover, having a strong correlation between them and considering the measures of anxiety and depression as independent variables, these seem to be a predictive factor of the event's impact perception in the study population. These results encourage to underline the importance of adequate psychological support for health workers even after the acute phase of the emergency.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: This study aims to evaluate the impact of psychological and sociodemographic variables on perceived personal and comparative susceptibility to diseases caused by a novel, unknown virus. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: A total of 438 adults (200 male and 238 female) were interviewed in the waiting rooms of three primary care medicine outpatient clinics. The participants completed three validated questionnaires: the Italian Adjustment of Risk Perception of Infectious Diseases questionnaire, the General Self-Efficacy (GSE) scale, and the Italian Version of Personality Inventory (ITAPI). RESULTS: Only 5% of the respondents believed it likely that they would contract a disease caused by a novel virus in the following months, even though 5.9% considered this probability higher than that of other people of the same age and gender. Gender (P < .04), age (P = .002), and marital status (P = .002) significantly affected the perceived risk of getting a disease caused by a novel virus. Self-efficacy (P < .001), imagination (P < .001), and empathy (P < .001) were significant predictors of perceived personal susceptibility. Self-efficacy (P = .04) and imagination (P = .04) were predictive of perceived comparative susceptibility. CONCLUSIONS: Adequate psycho-educational interventions are necessary to empower the population in adopting the necessary prevention and containment measures aimed at limiting the spread of novel diseases such as COVID-19 and avoiding disastrous consequences both at the health and economic level.