ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic and its social restrictions have affected mental health globally. This systematic review aims to analyze the psychological responses of the general population and its related sociodemographic risk factors, excluding the most vulnerable groups (e.g., healthcare workers, COVID-19 patients and survivors, pregnant women, people with chronic diseases or preexisting psychiatric disorders). A reproducible search from June 2020 to February 2021 was conducted on PubMed and Google Scholar, following the PRISMA guidelines. Papers that (1) considered the most at-risk populations, (2) did not report sociodemographic data, and (3) did not use validated scales were excluded from our analysis. Non-English papers and review articles were also excluded. Of 1116 papers identified, 25 were included for this review (n = 162,465). The main risk factors associated with the emergence of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder were: female gender, younger and later age, high level of education, Latino origin, free marital status, living quarantine in a house with no outdoor, negative coping strategies, close proximity to positive cases, high concern about contracting COVID-19 and living in a most affected area. High income, physical activity, resilience, family support, and a high level of knowledge about COVID-19, seems to be protective factors against the onset of psychological symptoms. In a general population, COVID-19 restrictions are linked to risk factors for psychological disorders caused by gender and sociodemographic conditions. In this regard governments should pay more attention to the public’s mental health and its risk and protective factors.
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 lockdown, individuals were forced to remain at home, hence severely limiting the interaction within environmental stimuli, reducing the cognitive load placed on spatial competences. The effects of the behavioral restriction on cognition have been little examined. The present study is aimed at analyzing the effects of lockdown on executive function prominently involved in adapting behavior to new environmental demands. We analyze non-verbal fluency abilities, as indirectly providing a measure of cognitive flexibility to react to spatial changes. Sixteen students (mean age 20.75; SD 1.34), evaluated before the start of the lockdown (T1) in a battery of psychological tasks exploring different cognitive domains, have been reassessed during lockdown (T2). The assessment included the modified Five-Point Test (m-FPT) to analyze non-verbal fluency abilities. At T2, the students were also administered the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). The restriction of behaviors following a lockdown determines increased non-verbal fluency, evidenced by the significant increase of the number of new drawings. We found worsened verbal span, while phonemic verbal fluency remained unchanged. Interestingly, we observed a significant tendency to use the left part of each box in the m-FPT correlated with TAS-20 and with the subscales that assess difficulty in describing and identifying feelings. Although our data were collected from a small sample, they evidence that the restriction of behaviors determines a leftward bias, suggesting a greater activation of the right hemisphere, intrinsically connected with the processing of non-verbal information and with the need to manage an emotional situation.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: In 2020, to limit the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), many countries, including Italy, have issued a lengthy quarantine period for the entire population. For this reason lifestyle has changed, bringing inevitable repercussions to the Quality of Life (QoL). The present study aims to identify which psychosocial variables predict behaviors capable of affecting the QoL during the lockdown period, potentially highlighting factors that might promote well-being and health in the Italian population during the epidemic. METHODS: Between 27 April 2020 and 11 May 2020, we administered a web-survey to a sample of young Italian people (age M = 21.2; SD = 3.5; female = 57.7% of the sample). Employing variance-based structural equation modeling, we attempted to identify whether social connectedness, social support, and loneliness were variables predictive of the QoL of young Italians. We also sought to identify specific psychological factors, such as symbolic threat, realistic threat, and the threat from potentially contaminated objects, was correlated to COVID-19 fear and whether engaging in particular behaviors was likely to improve the QoL. RESULTS: Our results suggest that social connectedness and loneliness are significant predictors of QoL, while social support did not have a significant effect on QoL. Furthermore, we observed that symbolic and realistic threats and the threat from potentially contaminated objects are significant and positive predictors of COVID-19 fear. Moreover, COVID-19 fear had significant and positive relationships with the carrying out of specific behaviors, such as creative activities during the isolation period and that this related to affirming individuals' country-specific identity. Finally, COVID-19 fear is a significant predictor of behavioral factors related to the adherence to public health advice in line with national guidance regarding the containment of COVID-19; this factor, however, did not correlate with QoL. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest the importance of social context and psychological factors to help devise intervention strategies to improve the QoL during lockdown from epidemic events and, in particular, support the importance of promoting social communication and accurate information about the transmission of the virus.