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Clinical Trial
. 2020 Dec 31;15(12):e0244809.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244809. eCollection 2020.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health: An international study

Andrew T Gloster  1 , Demetris Lamnisos  2 , Jelena Lubenko  3 , Giovambattista Presti  4 , Valeria Squatrito  4 , Marios Constantinou  5 , Christiana Nicolaou  6 , Savvas Papacostas  7 , Gökçen Aydın  8 , Yuen Yu Chong  9 , Wai Tong Chien  9 , Ho Yu Cheng  9 , Francisco J Ruiz  10 , Maria B Garcia-Martin  11 , Diana P Obando-Posada  11 , Miguel A Segura-Vargas  10 , Vasilis S Vasiliou  12 , Louise McHugh  13 , Stefan Höfer  14 , Adriana Baban  15 , David Dias Neto  16 , Ana Nunes da Silva  17 , Jean-Louis Monestès  18 , Javier Alvarez-Galvez  19 , Marisa Paez-Blarrina  20 , Francisco Montesinos  21 , Sonsoles Valdivia-Salas  22 , Dorottya Ori  23 , Bartosz Kleszcz  24 , Raimo Lappalainen  25 , Iva Ivanović  26 , David Gosar  27 , Frederick Dionne  28 , Rhonda M Merwin  29 , Angelos P Kassianos  30 , Maria Karekla  30
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health: An international study

Andrew T Gloster et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered vast governmental lockdowns. The impact of these lockdowns on mental health is inadequately understood. On the one hand such drastic changes in daily routines could be detrimental to mental health. On the other hand, it might not be experienced negatively, especially because the entire population was affected.

Methods: The aim of this study was to determine mental health outcomes during pandemic induced lockdowns and to examine known predictors of mental health outcomes. We therefore surveyed n = 9,565 people from 78 countries and 18 languages. Outcomes assessed were stress, depression, affect, and wellbeing. Predictors included country, sociodemographic factors, lockdown characteristics, social factors, and psychological factors.

Results: Results indicated that on average about 10% of the sample was languishing from low levels of mental health and about 50% had only moderate mental health. Importantly, three consistent predictors of mental health emerged: social support, education level, and psychologically flexible (vs. rigid) responding. Poorer outcomes were most strongly predicted by a worsening of finances and not having access to basic supplies.

Conclusions: These results suggest that on whole, respondents were moderately mentally healthy at the time of a population-wide lockdown. The highest level of mental health difficulties were found in approximately 10% of the population. Findings suggest that public health initiatives should target people without social support and those whose finances worsen as a result of the lockdown. Interventions that promote psychological flexibility may mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

One of the authors is employed by a commercial affiliation: Private Pratice, Poland. This affiliation provided support in the form of salaries for author BK, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. No other authors have competing interests to declare.

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Publication types

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation awarded to Andrew T. Gloster (PP00P1_ 163716/1 & PP00P1_190082). The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors [ATG], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. One of the authors is employed by a commercial affiliation: Private Pratice, Poland. This affiliation provided support in the form of salaries for authors [BK], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.