Epidemiological sutdy on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the population of Metropolitan Lima

Abstract

Objective: Identify in the adult population of Metropolitan Lima the prevalence, access and factors associated with the main mental disorders (MD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: Cross-sectional, correlational study in a probabilistic, two-stage sample of 1823 adults (≥18 years old), interviewed by telephone. Instruments: sociodemographic file and housing characteristics; Questionnaire on COVID-19 Experiences; the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview ICD-10 Version; the MINI Suicide Risk Scale; the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; the Perceived Stress Scale; Psychosocial Functioning Brief Scale (based on suggested areas of the WHO DAS-S); Questionnaire on Access to Health Services; Mezzich Quality of Life Index; Diener's Life Satisfaction Scale; Block's Ego-Resilience Scale; and an Abbreviated Ad-hoc Questionnaire on Domestic Violence. Analysis used were the corrected F as a variant of the second-order Rao-Scott chi-square statistic and its significance based on its degrees of freedom and a significance level of < 0.05 and logistic regression analysis for complex samples. Results: A moderate to severe stress level was found in 57.2% of the population. Most mental health indicators, including positive health, showed unfavorable results over previous studies, including suicidal indicators, sleep problems, and systematic violence against women. The prevalence at 12 months, 6 months and current prevalence of any MD was 19.6%, 17.8% and 12.5%, respectively. The most frequent MD was depressive episode with an annual prevalence of 13.6% and 6 monthsprevalence of 12.3%, followed by generalized anxiety disorder. The presence of MD was significantly associated with female sex, lower age, marital status separated, divorced, or widowed, low educational level, low economic status, having lost its employment due to the pandemic, having been infected with COVID-19, having a family member infected and having a close family member died by COVID. A 12.2% of people with diagnosable MD accessed to treatment, and 29.4% considered they had needed a lot of care but did not receive it. Conclusions: Compared to periods without a pandemic, there was a two to three-fold increase in MD during the pandemic, suggesting that social policies should be oriented with priority to mental health.