­­The Combined Outcomes of the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Collapsing Economy on Quality of Life: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

BackgroundThis study aimed at examining the combined outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic and a collapsing economy on the quality of life (QOL) of the general Lebanese population.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted from 10-18 May 2020, via an online-based questionnaire using the snowball sampling technique. It enrolled 502 adult participants.ResultsThe QOL had a mean of 14.80[14.37;15.24]. A lower QOL was associated with female gender (beta=-1.533[-2.324;-0.743]), university education (beta=-2.119[-3.353;-0.885]), fear of COVID-19 (beta=-0.131[-0.199;-0.063]), fear of poverty (beta=-0.232[-0.402;-0.063]), verbal violence at home (beta=-3.464[-5.137;-1.790]), and chronic disease (beta=-1.307[-2.283;-0.330]). Better family satisfaction (beta=0.380[0.235;0.525]) and better financial situation (beta=0.029[0.003;0.055]) were significantly correlated with better QOL. In the subsample of workers/looking for a job, additional factors affected QOL: physical exercise (beta=1.318[0.370;2.265]) was associated with better QOL, while previous waterpipe smoking, being self-employed before the crisis (beta=-1.22[-2.208;-0.231]), working from home since the economic crisis (-1.853[-3.692;-0.013]), closure of the institution (beta=-1.201[-2.607;0.204]), and worrying about long-term effects of the crisis on one's employment status (beta=-0.433[-0.650;-0.216]) were associated lower QOL; the fear of COVID-19 was not significantly associated with QOL (p>0.05).ConclusionThis study showed that during the pandemic, economic and other factors, directly or indirectly related to COVID-19, significantly affected quality of life. The fear of COVID-19 and fear of poverty mainly impacted the QOL of the general population; however, the fear of COVID-19 lost its significance among workers, who reported that factors negatively affecting their QOL are directly related to their employment and the already collapsing economy in Lebanon.

Family demands and satisfaction with family life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“…Researchers have speculated about the broader implications of increasing family demands stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Rudolph et al, in press). Moreover, recent empirical evidence has found positive relationships between satisfaction with family life and overall quality of life indices reported during the COVID-19 pandemic (Sacre et al, 2020). Thus, given their important roles in defining overall quality of family life, and their apparent role in understanding family dynamics during this pandemic, our goals with this study were twofold: First, based on theorizing regarding family stress adaptation (for a review, see Malia, 2006), we sought to model changes in family demands and satisfaction with family life that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.…”