Factors Associated With Depressive Symptoms in Individuals Who Have Experienced COVID-19 Self-Quarantine

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with depressive symptoms in individuals who have experienced self-quarantine because of coronavirus disease exposure or infection using Lazarus and Folkman's stress, coping, and adaptation theory, and George's Social Antecedent Model of Depression. This was a cross-sectional study that used data from the 2020 Korean Community Health Survey. A complex sample design was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics, the Rao-Scott X2 test, and logistic regression analysis were conducted to identify factors associated with depressive symptoms. Approximately 5.3% of the subjects had depressive symptoms. The factors associated with depressive symptoms were age, level of education, household income, changes in daily life due to coronavirus disease, whether someone provided assistance during the self-quarantine, perceived health status, and hospital consultation due to depressive symptoms. The findings of this study will be utilized as basic data for the development of programs to alleviate and prevent depressive symptoms in self-quarantine individuals.

The impact of self-isolation on psychological wellbeing and how to reduce it: a systematic review

“…COVID-19 stressors, such as changes in daily life, worries about infection and job security, and a lack of support during self-isolation were consistently associated with higher levels of general psychological, depressive, and anxiety symptoms. 32,37,44 Depressive and anxiety symptoms were found to be lower at the end of self-isolation compared to the start 35 and a longer period of self-isolation was associated with lower sleep problems at the end of the isolation period. 21 Self-isolation at home rather than a hotel was associated with lower PTSD symptoms, 40,49 but not anxiety symptoms.…”

“…Most of the studies were conducted in Europe, 19,23,26,30,34,36–39,41,45,47,50,52,53 Asia, 22,24,28,29,33 and South Asia. 20,31,46,48,49 The rest were in Africa, 21,40,42,43 East Asia, 32,35,54 South America, 27,44 North America, 25 and one study was multi-continent. 51 Most studies were cross-sectional in design, 19–23,25,27,29,30,32,34,36,37,39–45,47,49–51,53,54 two were longitudinal, 35,46 three were interventions, 24,31,48 and five were qualitative.…”

“…31,46,48 Reasons for self-isolation were COVID-19 infection, 21,24,26,28,29,31,33,35,37,40,41,43,45,47–49 suspected infection, 42 close contact with an infected person, 30,36,39,52,54 or a combination of these. 19,20,22,23,25,27,32,34,38,44,50,51,53 One study did not report a reason. 46…”

“…Factors associated with wellbeing were reported in 20 quantitative studies, several of which investigated associations with more than one factor (Table 4). The most reported factors were related to self-isolation, 19,21,32,34,35,37,40,44,45,49,51 demographics, 21,30,32,42,44,47 mental and physical health, 21,32,37,47,54 and COVID-19 symptoms. 21,37,43 Several factors or outcomes were reported by only one study, such as the time of year or loneliness, which are not reported here but can be found in the full extraction tables (Appendix 6).…”

“…There was no evidence found for living alone to be associated with wellbeing symptoms. 30,32 There was inconsistent evidence for an association between age or gender with any wellbeing symptoms. 21,30,32,42,44,47…”