Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety in Colombia: What Happened During Covid-19 Pandemic?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the well-being of millions of people around the globe. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health of the population was affected, which means that governments would need to implement different actions to mitigate and treat mental health disorders result of the pandemic. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of anxiety and depression for female and male adolescents and adults in Colombia before the COVID-19 pandemic. It also aimed to estimate the potential increase of the prevalence in each group as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. We used the Individual Registry of Health Services Delivery data from 2015 - 2021 to estimate the observed prevalence of anxiety and depression. Using the National Mental Health Survey 2015, we simulated the expected prevalence of anxiety and depression for adolescents (12 to 17 years) and adults (18 or older) from 2016 to 2020. We used an arithmetic static Monte Carlo simulation process to estimate the expected prevalence. The results of the analysis using revealed an important increase in the observed prevalence of these disorders for adults and adolescents and men and women between 2015 and February 2020. When we simulated different scenarios using the National Mental Health Survey and estimated the prevalence of both depression and anxiety for adults and adolescents, we found that the prevalence of depression and anxiety has had an important increase in the last five years for all groups and had an important increase during the 2020. This increase has been greater for women than for men, and for adolescents than adults. Our results show the number of people who need potential attention from the health system in Colombia and highlight the importance to think about how to avoid and detect potential cases of anxiety and depression especially in female adolescents.