Mental and physical health in general population during COVID-19

Feifei Wang

and Szilvia Boros, MD. PhD. habil.

1. Doctoral School of Education, Faculty of Education and Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

2. Institute of Health Promotion and Sport Sciences, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

Made at: 11/11/2020

INTRODUCTION

The outbreak of COVID-19 changed the normality of daily life.

Governments worldwide have implemented countless policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mobility restriction, e.g.

quarantine or confinement, is one of the most important measures to control the fast spreading and infected cases of the Corona virus. Due to mobility restriction measures, physical and mental health in general population became a remarkable concern for researchers and health professionals.

METHODOLOGY

The review was conducted in October 2020 through PubMed and Web of Science with searching frame: mental health and physical health during COVID-19 published in 2020. The study selection process followed the Prisma flow diagram and all selected articles went through a quality assessment by Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Checklist.

RESULT

Most reviewed studies emphasized the mental health issue among general population during COVID-19. The reported mental

consequences are mainly negative psychological effects including stress symptoms, anxiety, depression. Evidence showed that total physical activity significantly decreased between before and during COVID-19 pandemic in general population. Studies suggested that reduced physical activity is a risk factor for mental health and reduction of total physical activity had a profoundly negative impact on psychological health and well-being of population.

CONCLUSION

In general population, both mental and physical health consequences caused academic concern and clarified information for different social layers of population need to be justified. More attention should be paid for research in physical health, meanwhile, further investigations should be addressed on how mental health consequences can be mitigated under pandemic conditions. Discovery of mental and physical promotion interventions to outline the psychological, social, and physiological aspects of the pandemic are required.

REFERENCES

Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet.

Holmes, E. A., O'Connor, R. C., Perry, V. H., Tracey, I., Wessely, S., Arseneault, L., ... & Ford, T.

(2020). Multidisciplinary research priorities for the COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science. The Lancet Psychiatry.

Maugeri, G., Castrogiovanni, P., Battaglia, G., Pippi, R., D'Agata, V., Palma, A., ... & Musumeci, G. (2020). The impact of physical activity on psychological health during Covid-19 pandemic in Italy. Heliyon, 6(6), e04315.

Neria, Y., Nandi, A., & Galea, S. (2008). Post-traumatic stress disorder following disasters: a systematic review. Psychological medicine, 38(4), 467.

Salari, N., Hosseinian-Far, A., Jalali, R., Vaisi-Raygani, A., Rasoulpoor, S., Mohammadi, M., ...

& Khaledi-Paveh, B. (2020). Prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Globalization and health, 16(1), 1-11.

Stanton, R., To, Q. G., Khalesi, S., Williams, S. L., Alley, S. J., Thwaite, T. L., ... & Vandelanotte, C. (2020). Depression, Anxiety and Stress during COVID-19: Associations with Changes in Physical Activity, Sleep, Tobacco and Alcohol Use in Australian Adults. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(11), 4065.

Mental and physical health in general population during COVID-19

Figure 1 The flow diagram

Records identified through database searching

(n = 773 )

ScreeningIncludedEligibilityIdentification

Additional records identified through other sources

(n = 0 )

Records after duplicates removed (n = 296 )

Records screened (n = 477 )

Records excluded (n = 436 )

Full-text articles assessed for eligibility

(n = 41 )

Full-text articles excluded, with reasons

(n = 35 ) Subjects are healthcare staff (n = 19 ) Subjects are clinical patients (n = 8 ) Non-relevant (n = 8 ) Studies included in

qualitative synthesis (n = 6 )

Studies included in quantitative synthesis

(meta-analysis) (n = 6 )