Psychological consequences of COVID-19 home confinement: The ECLB-COVID19 multicenter study

Abstract

Background Public health recommendations and government measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have enforced restrictions on daily-living. While these measures are imperative to abate the spreading of COVID-19, the impact of these restrictions on mental health and emotional wellbeing is undefined. Therefore, an international online survey (ECLB-COVID19) was launched on April 6, 2020 in seven languages to elucidate the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on mental health and emotional wellbeing. Methods The ECLB-COVID19 electronic survey was designed by a steering group of multidisciplinary scientists, following a structured review of the literature. The survey was uploaded and shared on the Google online-survey-platform and was promoted by thirty-five research organizations from Europe, North-Africa, Western-Asia and the Americas. All participants were asked for their mental wellbeing (SWEMWS) and depressive symptoms (SMFQ) with regard to “during” and “before” home confinement. Results Analysis was conducted on the first 1047 replies (54% women) from Asia (36%), Africa (40%), Europe (21%) and other (3%). The COVID-19 home confinement had a negative effect on both mental-wellbeing and on mood and feelings. Specifically, a significant decrease (p < .001 and Δ% = 9.4%) in total score of the SWEMWS questionnaire was noted. More individuals (+12.89%) reported a low mental wellbeing “during” compared to “before” home confinement. Furthermore, results from the mood and feelings questionnaire showed a significant increase by 44.9% (p < .001) in SMFQ total score with more people (+10%) showing depressive symptoms “during” compared to “before” home confinement. Conclusion The ECLB-COVID19 survey revealed an increased psychosocial strain triggered by the home confinement. To mitigate this high risk of mental disorders and to foster an Active and Healthy Confinement Lifestyle (AHCL), a crisis-oriented interdisciplinary intervention is urgently needed.

Athlete's Perceptions of a “Quarantine” Training Camp During the COVID-19 Lockdown

“…Our data revealed increased perceived stress level during the lockdown, compared to pre-lockdown (4.4%, trivial effect), ( Figure 3 ). Our data are in agreement with recent research among general population (Ammar et al, 2020b ) and Italian athletes (di Fronso et al, 2020 ). The pandemic has highlighted multiple potential stressors and individual circumstances likely determine the contributing role of each to athlete's perceived stress.…”

Personality, Coping Strategies, and Mental Health in High-Performance Athletes During Confinement Derived From the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Regarding the concept of perfectionism, the differences found according to sex are in line with the differences found in the variables anxiety and mood states already presented by other authors (56,57). It is worth noting the importance of developing specific psychological tests to analyze relevant variables such as "Sports age category by sex" and "Sports age category" and may include other physical variables such as body mass index (BMI) in the study if needed, in line with previous research that refers to the existence of correlations between physical and psychological variables (44).…”

“…The results obtained in perfectionism follow the same line of other variables included in this research: there are differences in the sex variable. As already highlighted in previous research (56,57), it is needed to develop future research examining certain variables of the athlete's personality and strictly sports-related, such as sports age category, sports category by sex, and category by weight, among other variables.…”

The Impact of COVID-19 on Women’s Physical Activity Behavior and Mental Well-Being

“…Specific physical activity programming that is inclusive of lifestyle physical activity and can engage children or provide support and opportunity for physical activity engagement is encouraged. Additionally, the use of digital technology may reduce the psychosocial strain of home confinement [4,5] by providing opportunity to engage in socially supportive physical activity. Future research should assess the long-term impact of the pandemic on women's physical activity and associated mental well-being as well objective measurement of physical activity.…”

“…A global pandemic was declared in March of 2020 due to coronavirus 19 (COVID-19), a potentially fatal respiratory virus, with the first cases reported in Wuhan, China. As well as the direct impact of the disease, there may be unintended negative health consequences due to public health restrictions such as reduced health-promoting behaviors and increased mental duress [1][2][3][4] due to social confinement [4,5]. Additionally, women may be disproportionately affected by the negative consequences of COVID-19 restrictions as they make up 70% of health and social-service workers worldwide [6] and are more likely to be in retail and service jobs.…”