Highlights To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study focused on COVID-19 associated mental health among the home-quarantined Bangladeshi university and college students. University students had greater psychological impact due to COVID-19 than college students. Perceived COVID-19 symptoms were significantly associated with higher scores in DASS stress subscale (B=3.71, 95% CI: 1.01 to 6.40), DASS anxiety subscale (B= 3.95, 95% CI: 1.95 to 5.96), DASS depression subscale (B=3.82, 95% CI: 0.97 to 6.67) and IES scores (B=7.52, 95% CI: 3.58 to 11.45). Physical exercise was significantly associated in lowering scores of DASS depression subscale (B= -2.10, 95% CI: -4.02 to -0.17) Financial uncertainty, fear of COVID-19 infection, inadequate valid information on COVID-19, and excessive exposure to COVID-19 news on social & mass media had significant negative impact on students’ mental health.

Background: COVID-19 is imposing threat both on physical and mental health since its outbreak. Bangladesh adopted lockdown strategy with potential consequences on day to day life, mental and physical health and this study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and wellbeing among Bangladeshi students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between 9th and 23th April 2020 among 505 college and university students. Data was collected by using online questionnaire including DASS 21 and IES. Descriptive analysis and bivariate linear regression were performed to examine the association of variables. Results: 28.5 % of the respondents had stress, 33.3% anxiety, 46.92% depression from mild to extremely severe, according to DASS 21 and 69.31% had event-specific distress from mild to severe in terms of severity according to IES. Perceiving physical symptoms as COVID-19 was significantly associated with DASS stress subscale (B=3.71, 95% CI: 1.01 to 6.40), DASS anxiety subscale (B= 3.95, 95% CI: 1.95 to 5.96), DASS depression subscale (B=3.82, 95% CI: 0.97 to 6.67) and IES scale (B=7.52, 95% CI: 3.58 to 11.45). Additionally, fear of infection, financial uncertainty, inadequate food supply, absence of physical exercise and limited or no recreational activity had significant association with stress, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic symptoms. Conclusion: This COVID-19 outbreak imposes psychological consequences on people to a great extent which requires attention from the concerned authorities to cope with this situation mentally. The perception about the outbreak can also play a big role in psychological impact.

ObjectivesIn addition to risking their physical well-being, frontline physicians are enduring significant emotional burden both at work and home during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to investigate the levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms and to identify associated factors among Bangladeshi physicians during the COVID-19 outbreak.Methods and designA cross-sectional study using an online survey was conducted between April 21 and May 10, 2020. Outcomes assessed included demographic questions, COVID-19 related questions, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).ResultsThe survey was completed by 412 Bangladeshi physicians. The findings revealed that, in terms of standardized HADS cut-off points, the prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms among physicians was 67.72% and 48.5% respectively. Risk factors for higher rates of anxiety or depressive symptoms were: being female, physicians who had experienced COVID-19 like symptoms during the pandemic, those who had not received incentives, those who used self-funded PPE, not received adequate training, lacking perceived self-efficacy to manage COVID -19 positive patients, greater perceived stress of being infected, fear of getting assaulted/humiliated, being more connected with social media, having lower income levels to support the family, feeling more agitated, less than 2 hours of leisure activity per day and short sleep duration. All these factors were found to be positively associated with anxiety and depression in unadjusted and adjusted statistical models.ConclusionsThis study identifies a real concern about the prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms among Bangladeshi physicians and identifies several associated factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the vulnerability of the physicians in this extraordinary period whilst they are putting their own lives at risk to help people infected by COVID-19, health authorities should address the psychological needs of medical staff and formulate effective strategies to support vital frontline health workers.STHRENGHTS & LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDYThis study reports a novel and concerning findings on the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms with identification of several important associated factors among Bangladeshi physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.The cross-sectional nature of the study design could not establish causal relationship between the dependent and independent variables.This study was carried out by conducting a web-based survey, which might generate sampling bias by excluding the physicians who do not have access to internet or inactive in social medias, and thus limit the generalizability of the findings.

Background:The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created several challenges including the financial burden which may result in mental health conditions. Aim:This study was undertaken to gauge the mental health difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic to gain an insight into wage earners’ mental health as they are responsible for maintaining the finance of their families in this critical situation. Method:This cross-sectional study was conducted through an online survey, a total of 707 individual Bangladeshi wage earners were enrolled in between 20 May 2020 and 30 May 2020. The questionnaire had sections on sociodemographic information, COVID-19 related questions, PHQ-9 & GAD-7 scales to assess depressive symptoms & anxiety, respectively. STATA version 14.1 program was used to carry out all the analyses. Results:The study revealed that 58.6% and 55.9% of the respondents had moderate to severe anxiety and depressive symptoms, respectively. The total monthly income less than 30,000 BDT (353.73USD) displayed increased odds of suffering from depressive symptoms (OR=4.12; 95% CI: 2.68-6.34) and anxiety (OR=3.31; 95% CI: 2.17-5.03). Participants who didn’t get any salary, had no income source during lockdown, had financial problem, inadequate food supply were more likely to suffer from anxiety and depressive symptoms (p ≤ .01). Perceiving the upcoming financial crisis as a stressor was a potential risk factor for anxiety (OR=1.91; 95% CI:1.32-2.77) and depressive symptoms (OR=1.50; 95% CI:1.04-2.16). Conclusion:Wage-earners in a low resource setting like Bangladesh require mental health attention. Furthermore, financial consideration from the state or their workplace may help them to deal with mental health difficulties during this pandemic.

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