Mental Health during the COVID-19 Crisis in Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

We aim to provide a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence rates of mental health symptoms among major African populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We include articles from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and medRxiv between 1 February 2020 and 6 February 2021, and pooled data using random-effects meta-analyses. We identify 28 studies and 32 independent samples from 12 African countries with a total of 15,071 participants. The pooled prevalence of anxiety was 37% in 27 studies, of depression was 45% in 24 studies, and of insomnia was 28% in 9 studies. The pooled prevalence rates of anxiety, depression, and insomnia in North Africa (44%, 55%, and 31%, respectively) are higher than those in Sub-Saharan Africa (31%, 30%, and 24%, respectively). We find (a) a scarcity of studies in several African countries with a high number of COVID-19 cases; (b) high heterogeneity among the studies; (c) the extent and pattern of prevalence of mental health symptoms in Africa is high and differs from elsewhere—more African adults suffer from depression rather than anxiety and insomnia during COVID 19 compared to adult populations in other countries/regions. Hence, our findings carry crucial implications and impact future research to enable evidence-based medicine in Africa.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Insomnia in Spain in the COVID-19 Crisis

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“…Globalisation of the world economy has created international opportunities. Nevertheless, taking the current international business (IB) environment into consideration, the global infection status of Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) had brought risks on economic activities ( Yue et al, 2020 ) and mental health disorders to individuals ( Chen et al, 2021 ; Pappa et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2022 ). Internationalisation is instrumental to a firm’s survival and growth along with the potential for a positive effect on economic development ( The World Bank, 2019 ).…”

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“…showing the negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis on people's mental health and wellbeing around the world (Chen et al, 2021;Hossain et al, 2021;Singh et al, 2020). This raises a question of the degree to which the data from the three countries might reflect unusually elevated levels of anxiety or lower levels of mental wellbeing.…”