Impact of COVID-19 On Mental Health Of Adults In Australia Research

Introduction

The outbreak and the resulting global pandemic of the Novel Coronavirus disease alias COVID-19 since December 2019 has affected nearly all the countries of the world spanning across all the continents. With the unavailability of its vaccination, although all the countries are taking the necessary precautionary steps to cope maximally with the disease i.e., by limiting its spread via various precautionary measures as well as early treatments with medications against viral infections already available along with the social distancing measure. However, the last of these mentioned along with the stress of the pandemic are inevitably associated with a definite influence on the mental health of people (Rajkumar, 2020; Serafini et al., 2020).

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The reasons for the stress induced by the pandemics, such as the current coronavirus situation, lie mostly in the questions which are quite naturally arouse in the minds of people of all ages. Some of the most common of these are the newness about the disease and an uncertainty of the ultimate outcome of the disease contraction. These thoughts can also be sometimes overwhelming especially for adults. Additionally, when combined with public actions, the most important of which under the current scenario is the social distancing, the resultant isolation and loneliness can not only trigger stress and anxiety related disorders but also increase them in people already suffering from such illnesses (Kontoangelos, Economou, & Papageorgiou, 2020; Vindegaard & Benros, 2020). Therefore, the current proposal is being put forward to measure find the impact of COVID-19 on adult mental health in Australian population.

Summary of the project

This is a cross-sectional study designed to be carried out on the adults residing in Australia – including all the communities and people from different socioeconomic as well as from the diverse geographical areas of the country. Due to the various changes the pandemic has introduced into people’s lifestyles, it is also associated with increases mental illnesses some of the most common of which are insomnia, depression, stress, anxiety, various fears and psychological distress, just like other pandemics did in the past (Chua, Cheung, Cheung, et al., 2004; Chua, Cheung, McAlonan, et al., 2004).

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Moreover, some groups of researcher have done some appreciable efforts in finding the mental health impacts of the disease in different subgroups of the world’s populations such as students, health care workers and similar groups. However, there is some important lag in information regarding to the effects including a large group of population entailing all the groups in one this representing the results of a country’s population as a whole (Newby, O’Moore, Tang, Christensen, & Faasse, 2020; Tan et al., 2020; Vindegaard & Benros, 2020). This lag in research is proposed to be covered in this proposal by the inclusion of all the communities of the Australia as a whole via making possible the maximum participation of the people at all levels.

The main objectives of the proposed study will be:

• Determination of the financial statuses, medical health and social welfare conditions before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and a comparison of their results;
• Determination of the mental health of adults and assessment of the factors described above on the mental health wellbeing;
• Finding the difference between the mental health statuses before and after the pandemic and analysis of their correlation with various socioeconomic factors and other health conditions i.e., already present diseases; and
• Identification of the socioeconomic factors which might be associated with mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology

The recruitment of participants will be done via personal contacts as well as via advertisements through various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and twitter with inclusion criteria as: the residents of Australia and 18 years or above of age. Moreover, it will be made sure that the participants understand the terms and conditions of the study via some initial questions to explain them the study purposes before proceeding to the main questions about their mental health.

The ethics approval and consents will be taken from the respective Human Research Ethics Committees and Human Research Ethics Advisory Panels of Australia and it will be the responsibilities of the collaborators to get their forms done during the specified time period. Moreover, the participants will be provided with the informed consents electronically before their participation in the study.

About the metal health of the participants, some of the framed questions to be asked can be: the feeling of loneliness during the pandemic period; effect on the financial conditions of the participants and the stress levels being produced as a result; concerns about the financial situations; uncertainty and concerns about the future. These questions will be asked on a scale of 5 with 1 being the lowest impact and 5 being highest. Moreover, a qualitative data in the form of individual responses will also be collected by asking how the COVID situation might have affected their mental health.

The statistical analysis on the data will be done, first considering the descriptive data such as demography and clinical presentations. Then, categorical variables will be analyzed via chi square tests and t-tests for independent samples. Also, the various comparisons of the study will include participants with and without mental health problems (also their prior occurrence), participants with self-isolations and those with no self-isolation and comparison of financial factors for the incidence of mental health issues.

Timetable

	1-3 months	3-20 months	20-24 months
Survey design and making of questionnaires
Translation of questionnaires into other languages
Collection of data, ethics approval
Collaborations for more data collection
Data analysis
Manuscript preparation
Manuscript submission

Conclusions

Due to the diversity of the psychobiological responses to various traumas, the underpinnings of both acute as well as chronic brain traumas remain vague. And thus, there lies the block in the progress to solve the associated mental health problems. However, this problem can be solved to some extent by following a comprehensive approach which not only embeds in it the specific psychological contexts but also the social reasons behind it. Therefore, a detailed analysis on the distinct and circumstantial factors which influence the psychological and brain responses to traumatic experiences must focus not only on the underlying mental distress but also on the reasons for the resilience to these traumatic experiences.

References

Chua, S. E., Cheung, V., Cheung, C., McAlonan, G. M., Wong, J. W., Cheung, E. P., . . . Tsang, K. W. (2004). Psychological effects of the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong on high-risk health care workers. Can J Psychiatry, 49(6), 391-393. doi:10.1177/070674370404900609

Chua, S. E., Cheung, V., McAlonan, G. M., Cheung, C., Wong, J. W., Cheung, E. P., . . . Tsang, K. W. (2004). Stress and psychological impact on SARS patients during the outbreak. Can J Psychiatry, 49(6), 385-390. doi:10.1177/070674370404900607

Kontoangelos, K., Economou, M., & Papageorgiou, C. (2020). Mental Health Effects of COVID-19 Pandemia: A Review of Clinical and Psychological Traits. Psychiatry investigation, 17(6), 491-505. doi:10.30773/pi.2020.0161

Newby, J. M., O’Moore, K., Tang, S., Christensen, H., & Faasse, K. (2020). Acute mental health responses during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. PLOS ONE, 15(7), e0236562. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236562

Rajkumar, R. P. (2020). COVID-19 and mental health: A review of the existing literature. Asian journal of psychiatry, 52, 102066-102066. doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102066

Serafini, G., Parmigiani, B., Amerio, A., Aguglia, A., Sher, L., & Amore, M. (2020). The psychological impact of COVID-19 on the mental health in the general population. QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians, 113(8), 531-537. doi:10.1093/qjmed/hcaa201

Tan, E. J., Meyer, D., Neill, E., Phillipou, A., Toh, W. L., Van Rheenen, T. E., & Rossell, S. L. (2020). Considerations for assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in Australia. The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry, 4867420947815-4867420947815. doi:10.1177/0004867420947815

Vindegaard, N., & Benros, M. E. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic and mental health consequences: Systematic review of the current evidence. Brain, behavior, and immunity, S0889-1591(0820)30954-30955. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2020.05.048