Validity and Reliability of the Digital Functioning Assessment Short Test (D-FAST) in the Brazilian Sample.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions in all aspects of daily functioning, from school and work to interactions with friends and family. The Functioning Assessment Short Test (FAST) is an interviewer-administered scale validated in the psychiatric sample with no previous study assessing its validity and reliability in a digital format. Thus, we aimed to analyse the psychometric properties of the digital version of the FAST and understand the implications of COVID-19 and restrictive measures on functioning. Methods: Data were collected using an online survey. The psychometric properties of the digital FAST were assessed by confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and discriminant functional by cluster analysis in a community sample. Results: Out of the total sample, 2,543 (84.1%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 34.28 (12.46) years. The digital FAST retained the six factors structure observed in the original version, with Cronbach's alpha above 0.9. In addition, we showed evidence of discriminant validity by differentiating three clusters of psychosocial functioning. Clinical and demographic differences between groups explained, in part, the heterogeneity of functioning, thus providing support for the construct validity of the instrument. Conclusion: The digital FAST is a simple and easy-to-understand instrument that provides a multidimensional assessment of functioning without the need for an interviewer. Furthermore, our findings may help to better understand the psychosocial implications of the pandemic and the importance of planning specific interventions to rehabilitee the affected group.

Mental health, functioning and quality of life between work in the office and work from home employees during first wave of COVID19 in Brazil.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic early in 2020, period that governments imposed strict measures of social distancing to slow its transmission. However, most essential services remained open, and the work in the office faced a higher risk of infection compared to work in home. We compare the occurrence and potential determinants of mental health outcomes, functioning and quality of life in a sample of Brazilian individuals who worked from home and those who worked in the office during the first wave of COVID-19. METHODS: Data were collected during the first wave of COVID-19, using an online survey to assess sociodemographic and clinical variables, functioning (FAST-D), quality of life (EUROhisQOL), depression (PROMIS depression), anxiety (PROMIS anxiety), and stress symptoms (IES-R scale) in a huge sample consisted of individuals who worked in office (n=1685) and worked from home (n=1338). RESULTS: Analysis revealed that depressive and post-traumatic stress symptoms were less prevalent in individuals who worked from home as well as they have higher functioning and quality of life than those worked in the office. Individuals who worked in the office were younger, more likely to be female, had lower household income level, low education levels and were more unmarried than the other group. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the notion of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in both work in the office and work from home; however, the group who worked from home seems to be more resilient with less psychiatric symptoms and better functioning.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health among local residents in South of Brazil: during pandemic times, youth sleep matters.

INTRODUCTION: Social isolation has been associated with poor sleep quality and mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, most studies have investigated heterogeneous samples subjected to varying social distancing policies and did not focus on a single local profile subject to homogeneous prevention policies. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and sleep quality in a specific region in the South of Brazil where the populations have similar culture and local governments have adopted similar social distancing policies. METHODS: This study was conducted with 327 individuals aged 18-72 years, living in the Vale do Taquari area, Brazil. We assessed sociodemographic variables with a standardized protocol, symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress with the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), sleep quality with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and post-traumatic stress symptoms with the Impact of Event Scale (IES-R), using a web-based online survey. RESULTS: Our results showed that sleep dysfunction moderated the effects of age on psychological symptoms, indicating that younger participants who had poorer sleep quality had worse mental health. Furthermore, participants with more perceived stress during the pandemic and more sleep dysfunction reported more symptoms of anxiety and post-traumatic stress. CONCLUSION: Psychological symptoms were not related to social isolation duration but were related to the subjective perception that the pandemic interfered with life and generated stressful situations. These results may help governments make important decisions about protection and isolation measures in future waves of COVID-19 infection.

COVID-19 and mental health in Brazil: Psychiatric symptoms in the general population.

Public health interventions at general population level are imperative in order to decrease the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but they may contribute to widespread emotional distress and increased risk for psychiatric illnesses. We report on the results of an investigation into the occurrence and determinants of psychiatric symptoms among the Brazilian general population (N = 1996). We assessed sociodemographic variables and general mental health (DSM-5 Self-Rated Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure), depression (PROMIS depression v.8a), anxiety (PROMIS anxiety v.8a), and post-traumatic stress symptoms (Impact of Event Scale-IES-R scale) using an online web-based survey. Anxiety (81.9%), depression (68%), anger (64.5%), somatic symptoms (62.6%) and sleep problems (55.3%) were the most common psychiatric symptoms. Younger age, female gender, low income, lower level of education, longer period of social distancing, and self-reported history of previous psychiatric illness were strongly associated with higher severity of symptoms. Our results support the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the Brazilian population. The high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms observed in our sample indicates that the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic should be considered a public health problem in Brazil. The health systems and individual clinicians must be prepared to offer and implement specific interventions in order to identify and treat psychiatric issues.