The Most Stressful Events during the COVID-19 Epidemic
,
Abstract
Objective: Stressful events increase in traumatic conditions. Coronavirus is a new and serious challenge and significant public health problem, which can cause different stressors. This study has identified stressful events experienced by Iranian adults during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Method: Data on stressful events during the COVID-19 epidemic were collected online from 418 adults (mean age 37.16 years; 57.4% female and 42.6% male) using quota sampling method. Epidemic Stressful Events Checklist was applied for data collection. Data were analyzed by applying descriptive graphs and tables, the independent sample t-test, the Fisher’s F test, and post hoc Bonferroni test.
Results: The most frequent stressful event was rise in essential goods prices (84.7%); however, its perceived stress was not at the highest level. The highest severity of perceived stress was related to the death of a family member (4.83) due to COVID-19 infection, which was an event with the least occurrence, and the lowest severity of perceived stress was related to medical team performance (2.50). The results showed the severity of perceived stress is higher in women than men (t = 3.42; P value < 0.01) and also in the laboring occupations compared to other occupations (F = 3.18; P value < 0.05).
Conclusion: Traumatic events can lead to more serious concerns, eg., worrying about those we love, concerns about the future of our life, and about what politicians and macro planners will do to protect our lives. Moreover, traumatic events can cause concerns about food, basic needs, and lack of resources to survive.
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29. Chan EYY, Man AYT, Lam HCY. Scientific evidence on natural disasters and health emergency and disaster risk management in Asian rural-based area. Br Med Bull. 2019;129(1):91-105.
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31. Cohen RE. Mental health services for victims of disasters. World Psychiatry. 2002;1(3):149-52.
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33. Tognotti E. Lessons from the history of quarantine, from plague to influenza A. Emerging infectious diseases. 2013 Feb;19(2):254.
34. Mohammadi MR, Hooshyari Z, Ezanloo B, Shakiba A, Mostafavi SA, Salmanian M, Ahmadi A, Alavi SS, Khaleghi A, Zarafshan H. Application of Different Techniques of Factor Analysis to Develop Neighborhood Social Capital Rating Scale. Social Indicator Research. 2020.
35. Hatchimonji JS, Swendiman RA, Seamon MJ, Nance ML. Trauma does not Quarantine: Violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Ann Surg. 2020.
36. Mazza M, Marano G, Lai C, Janiri L, Sani G. Danger in danger: Interpersonal violence during COVID-19 quarantine. Psychiatry research. 2020 Apr 30:113046.
37. Hampton KN, Lu W, Shin I. Digital media and stress: the cost of caring 2.0. Information, Communication & Society. 2016 Sep 1;19(9):1267-86.
38. Marin MF, Morin-Major JK, Schramek TE, Beaupré A, Perna A, Juster RP, Lupien SJ. There is no news like bad news: women are more remembering and stress reactive after reading real negative news than men. PloS one. 2012 Oct 10;7(10): e47189.
39. Gillett-Swan J. The challenges of online learning: Supporting and engaging the isolated learner. Journal of Learning Design. 2017;10(1):20-30.
40. Gilbert B. Online learning revealing the benefits and challenges. 2015.
41. Marum G, Clench-Aas J, Nes RB, Raanaas RK. The relationship between negative life events, psychological distress and life satisfaction: a population-based study. Qual Life Res. 2014;23(2):601-11.
2. Chauhan V, Shah MH. An Empirical Analysis into Sentiments, Media Consumption Habits, and Consumer Behaviour during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak. Purakala with ISSN 0971-2143 is an UGC CARE Journal. 2020;31(20):353-78.
3. Zarghami M. Psychiatric aspects of Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection. Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci. 2020;14(1):e102957.
4. Karami, A. Investigating the psychological effects of Bam earthquake survivors . International Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 2007 Nov 1;1(1):27-32.
5. Suedfeld P. Extreme and unusual environments: challenges and Responses. The Oxford handbook of environmental and conservation psychology. 2012 Oct 18:348-71.
6. Hassanzadeh A, Heidari Z, Feizi A, Hassanzadeh Keshteli A, Roohafza H, Afshar H, et al. Association of Stressful Life Events with Psychological Problems: A Large-Scale Community-Based Study Using Grouped Outcomes Latent Factor Regression with Latent Predictors. Comput Math Methods Med. 2017;2017:3457103.
7. McFarlane AC. The effects of stressful life events and disasters: research and theoretical issues. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 1985;19(4):409-21.
8. Zuo B, Zhang X, Wen FF, Zhao Y. The influence of stressful life events on depression among Chinese university students: Multiple mediating roles of fatalism and core self-evaluations. J Affect Disord. 2020;260:84-90.
9. Kessler RC. The effects of stressful life events on depression. Annual review of psychology. 1997;48(1):191-214.
10. Brailovskaia J, Teismann T, Margraf J. Positive Mental Health, Stressful Life Events, and Suicide Ideation. Crisis. 2020:1-6.
11. Cohen S, Murphy MLM, Prather AA. Ten Surprising Facts About Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk. Annu Rev Psychol. 2019;70:577-97.
12. Tosevski DL, Milovancevic MP. Stressful life events and physical health. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2006;19(2):184-9.
13. Dohrenwend BP. Inventorying stressful life events as risk factors for psychopathology: Toward resolution of the problem of intracategory variability. Psychol Bull. 2006;132(3):477-95.
14. Lauer SA, Grantz KH, Bi Q, Jones FK, Zheng Q, Meredith HR, et al. The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application. Ann Intern Med. 2020;172(9):577-82.
15. Riva MA, Benedetti M, Cesana G. Pandemic fear and literature: observations from Jack London's The Scarlet Plague. Emerg Infect Dis. 2014;20(10):1753-7.
16. Banerjee D. ‘Age and ageism in COVID-19’: Elderly mental health-care vulnerabilities and needs. Asian Journal of Psychiatry. 2020 May 5.
17. Zhang J, Wu W, Zhao X, Zhang W. Recommended psychological crisis intervention response to the 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak in China: a model of West China Hospital. Precision Clinical Medicine. 2020 Mar 25;3(1):3-8.
18. Akbar B, Yadollah E, Sam-E Aram E, Forouzan S, Mostafa E. An investigation about the living conditions of Bam earthquake survivals. Social Welfare Quarterly. 2004;4(13):113-32.
19. Bolhari J, Chime N. Mental health intervention in Bam earthquake crisis: a qualitative study. Tehran University Medical Journal TUMS Publications. 2008;65(13):7-13.
20. Shafique Sajid M. Unearthing the most vulnerable: Psychological impact of natural disasters. Eur J Psychiatry. 2007;21(3):230-1.
21. Banerjee D. How COVID-19 is overwhelming our mental health. Nature India. 2020:2020.
22. Cozza SJ, Hefner KR. The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery.Psychiatry, 2019 May 20; 82(2):1790182.
23. Klastrup L. Death and Communal Mass-Mourning: Vin Diesel and the Remembrance of Paul Walker. Social Media+ Society. 2018;4(1):2056305117751383.
24. Probst DR, Gustin JL, Goodman LF, Lorenz A, Wells-Di Gregorio SM. ICU versus Non-ICU Hospital Death: Family Member Complicated Grief, Posttraumatic Stress, and Depressive Symptoms. J Palliat Med. 2016;19(4):387-93.
25. Petrinec AB, Daly BJ. Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Post-ICU Family Members: Review and Methodological Challenges. West J Nurs Res. 2016;38(1):57-78.
26. Alfheim HB, Hofsø K, Småstuen MC, Tøien K, Rosseland LA, Rustøen T. Post-traumatic stress symptoms in family caregivers of intensive care unit patients: A longitudinal study. Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2019;50:5-10.
27. Kopasker D, Montagna C, Bender KA. Economic insecurity: A socioeconomic determinant of mental health. SSM Popul Health. 2018;6:184-94.
28. Watson B, Osberg L. Job insecurity and mental health in Canada. Applied Economics. 2018;50(38):4137-52.
29. Chan EYY, Man AYT, Lam HCY. Scientific evidence on natural disasters and health emergency and disaster risk management in Asian rural-based area. Br Med Bull. 2019;129(1):91-105.
30. Neumayer E, Plümper T. The gendered nature of natural disasters: The impact of catastrophic events on the gender gap in life expectancy, 1981–2002. Ann Assoc Am Geogr. 2007;97(3):551-66.
31. Cohen RE. Mental health services for victims of disasters. World Psychiatry. 2002;1(3):149-52.
32. Schofield DJ, Shrestha RN, Percival R, Passey ME, Callander EJ, Kelly SJ. The personal and national costs of mental health conditions: impacts on income, taxes, government support payments due to lost labour force participation. BMC Psychiatry. 2011;11:72.
33. Tognotti E. Lessons from the history of quarantine, from plague to influenza A. Emerging infectious diseases. 2013 Feb;19(2):254.
34. Mohammadi MR, Hooshyari Z, Ezanloo B, Shakiba A, Mostafavi SA, Salmanian M, Ahmadi A, Alavi SS, Khaleghi A, Zarafshan H. Application of Different Techniques of Factor Analysis to Develop Neighborhood Social Capital Rating Scale. Social Indicator Research. 2020.
35. Hatchimonji JS, Swendiman RA, Seamon MJ, Nance ML. Trauma does not Quarantine: Violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Ann Surg. 2020.
36. Mazza M, Marano G, Lai C, Janiri L, Sani G. Danger in danger: Interpersonal violence during COVID-19 quarantine. Psychiatry research. 2020 Apr 30:113046.
37. Hampton KN, Lu W, Shin I. Digital media and stress: the cost of caring 2.0. Information, Communication & Society. 2016 Sep 1;19(9):1267-86.
38. Marin MF, Morin-Major JK, Schramek TE, Beaupré A, Perna A, Juster RP, Lupien SJ. There is no news like bad news: women are more remembering and stress reactive after reading real negative news than men. PloS one. 2012 Oct 10;7(10): e47189.
39. Gillett-Swan J. The challenges of online learning: Supporting and engaging the isolated learner. Journal of Learning Design. 2017;10(1):20-30.
40. Gilbert B. Online learning revealing the benefits and challenges. 2015.
41. Marum G, Clench-Aas J, Nes RB, Raanaas RK. The relationship between negative life events, psychological distress and life satisfaction: a population-based study. Qual Life Res. 2014;23(2):601-11.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 15 No 3 (2020) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijps.v15i3.3814 | |
| PMCID | PMC7603585 | |
| PMID | 33193770 | |
| Keywords | ||
| COVID-19 Epidemic Coronavirus Epidemic Infection Stress | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Mousavi SA-M, Hooshyari Z, Ahmadi A. The Most Stressful Events during the COVID-19 Epidemic. Iran J Psychiatry. 2020;15(3):220-227.
