Study highlights
Emergence: The outbreak of this COVID-19 occurred in China in December 2019. Novel Corona Virus has been declared as a pandemic condition in March 2020. This has now spread to almost 210 Countries around the globe.
Impact: Impacting billions of people life’s and sending billions of people into lockdown, turned people’s lives upside down, miserably affecting the economy, creating a negative impact on the employment and their income. The drastic impact of COVID is visible in every sector, every region, especially in low and lower-middle-income countries.
Objective of the study : The study was conducted for the assessment of the impact of lockdown and social isolation on the mental health and to blow the whistle on emerging silent mental health pandemic that is inevitable, and will have long term consequences on people lives, productivity and happiness.
Study population and sample: The study was conducted in Karachi the biggest city of Pakistan, an industrial hub, and a port city comprised of over 15 million population. The city was under complete lockdown for last four weeks. Because of the large population, the stigma attached to mental health, and ethical considerations the questionnaire was kept anonymous and the non-probability convenience sampling technique was used where as 6876 people participated in the study.
Demographic: T he demographic elements comprised of age (18-65 in five categories), gender (Male & Female), professionals, students, and entrepreneurs (self-employed and owners).
Rating instruments: Both PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were applied for this study to have a more robust understanding of the psychological impact of lockdown, social isolation, economic issues and worries.
Data Collection: Questionnaire was designed on “Google Form” and its link was shared with the respondent via Emails, Whatsapp, Facebook, and LinkedIn using 100 research volunteers. The respondents’ cooperation and readiness was high as it was anonymous, easy to complete within 3 minutes, and submission over a single click through their cell phone. The survey started on 16th April and completed within seven days. The statistical analytical tool SPSS was implied for descriptive analyses.