Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Among People from the Banking Sector in Bangladesh: a Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Despite the pandemic, the Government of Bangladesh decided to keep the banks open to a limited extent to keep the country's economy afloat. The aim of this study is to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 among the bankers who are usually more exposed to random people that put them at great risk to be affected. A total of 248 bankers willingly answered our questionnaire consisting of DASS-21 and relevant questions. Cronbach's reliability coefficient for the DASS-21 scale ranges from 0.84 to 0.90 which advocates that DASS-21 scales are highly reliable measures for this study. Results show that among participants, 11.1% were severe to extremely stressed, 10.6% of bankers were severe to extremely anxious, and 12.1% of them were severe to extremely depressed. The study illustrated, among the Bankers whose colleagues were infected (B=2.251, 95% CI: − 1.473, 3.029), who smoking more (B= 1.505, 95% CI: 0.411, 2.599), who wake up from sleep having a bad dreams (B = 1.018, 95% CI: 0.057, 1.979), their fear of getting infected (B = 1.717, 95% CI: 0.392, 3.04), who use public transportation (B = 1.378, 95% CI: 0.430, 2.236), who misbehave with family members (B = 1.033, 95% CI: 0.071, 1.995) and who beaten children (B = 1.210, 95% CI: 0.141, 2.279) were responsible for higher stress, depression and anxiety scores respectively. Whereas, taking nutritious food (B = −0.229, 95% CI: −0.30, 1.763), doing physical exercises (B = −0.325, 95% CI: −1.158, 0.508) reduced depression, stress and anxiety scores. The authors believed that the result of the study will be beneficial for the government and its policymakers to take psychological intervention strategies and to make certain sufficient corporal settlement of the banking professionals.

Prevalence and risk factors of mental disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: a systematic review

“…Mamun et al (30) reported that 15.6% of the participants were depressed who were involved with smoking, whereas this rate was 3.3% for alcohol users. Besides, another study reported that those who were smoking more frequently signi cantly experience a high score for stress and depression (39).…”

“…Therefore, fear of being infected also increases their risk of being affected mentally. Nevertheless, only a study was directed among bankers regarding the level of anxiety, depression and stress, which includes 10.6%, 12.1% and 11.1%, respectively; the lowest prevalence rates as identi ed across all of the cohorts included in this review (39).…”

“…Gender was found to be a signi cant predictor of mental disorders in a large number of studies (8, 14,[19][20][21][22][24][25][26]29,30,32,35,36,[38][39][40]. A study found that females were suffering mostly from depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively, where it was 3.4-, 3.4-and 4.5 times higher than males (19).…”

“…Marital status had been found signi cant in a total of 6-studies (21,26,29,36,39,40), which depicted that a married person was at approximately 2-times higher risk of suffering from anxiety than an unmarried person (29). But heterogeneity of depression rate distribution with marital status was also found in a comparative study among the general population and healthcare professionals; that is, the divorced participants reported the highest depression rate followed by those who were unmarried and married (53.5%, 33.6%, and 23.7%, respectively) (36).…”

“…Smoking and alcohol use signi cantly in uenced the risk of mental health problems such as stress, depression and anxiety a few studies (25,30,35,39). Mamun et al (30) reported that 15.6% of the participants were depressed who were involved with smoking, whereas this rate was 3.3% for alcohol users.…”