ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The current pandemic of COVID-19 impacted the psychological wellbeing of populations globally. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to examine the extent and identify factors associated with psychological distress, fear of COVID-19 and coping. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study across 17 countries during Jun-2020 to Jan-2021. Levels of psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale), fear of COVID-19 (Fear of COVID-19 Scale), and coping (Brief Resilient Coping Scale) were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 8,559 people participated; mean age (±SD) was 33(±13) years, 64% were females and 40% self-identified as frontline workers. More than two-thirds (69%) experienced moderate-to-very high levels of psychological distress, which was 46% in Thailand and 91% in Egypt. A quarter (24%) had high levels of fear of COVID-19, which was as low as 9% in Libya and as high as 38% in Bangladesh. More than half (57%) exhibited medium to high resilient coping; the lowest prevalence (3%) was reported in Australia and the highest (72%) in Syria. Being female (AOR 1.31 [95% CIs 1.09-1.57]), perceived distress due to change of employment status (1.56 [1.29-1.90]), comorbidity with mental health conditions (3.02 [1.20-7.60]) were associated with higher levels of psychological distress and fear. Doctors had higher psychological distress (1.43 [1.04-1.97]), but low levels of fear of COVID-19 (0.55 [0.41-0.76]); nurses had medium to high resilient coping (1.30 [1.03-1.65]). CONCLUSIONS: The extent of psychological distress, fear of COVID-19 and coping varied by country; however, we identified few higher risk groups who were more vulnerable than others. There is an urgent need to prioritise health and well-being of those people through well-designed intervention that may need to be tailored to meet country specific requirements.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , COVID-19/psychology , Fear , Global Health/statistics & numerical data , Psychological Distress , Adult , COVID-19/epidemiology , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Risk Factors , Socioeconomic Factors , Young AdultABSTRACT
COVID-19 pandemic has become a severe health threat to the Philippines and around the world. At the early onset of the pandemic, it is imperative to measure the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) among healthy individuals to better understand the causes, transmission, and preventive measures. Purpose: This study aimed to identify the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 in a healthy Filipino population during the early onset of the pandemic outbreak. Methods: This cross-sectional rapid online and web-based survey was conducted among healthy Filipino population. A total of 1634 subjects participated via the Google survey link. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the respondents' profile characteristics and KAP scores. The One-Way ANOVA or independent sample t-test was used to measure KAP scores' differences when grouped according to respondents' profile characteristics. Pearson correlation was used to measure the relationship among the KAP scores. The data were all analyzed using the SPSS version 26.0. Results: The overall knowledge scores revealed 67.7%. Filipinos believed COVID-19 would finally be successfully controlled and confident that the Philippines can win the battle against the virus through preventive practices. KAP scores showed significant differences with age, sex (p<0.000), and place of residence (p<0.000), occupation (p<0.000), and marital status (p<0.000). A significant positive low correlation between knowledge and practice (r=0.076, p<0.01), attitude and practice (r=0.100, p<0.01).Conclusion: Albeit a low knowledge of COVID-19, healthy Filipino populations had a positive attitude and compliant with the preventive measures. This study hopes to contribute to the growing corpus of literature on COVID-19 to provide evidence-based information towards health promotion, illness prevention, and control of possible virus' spread.