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An assessment of mental health and its associated factors in Indian population during COVID-19 crisis: A cross sectional study (Preprint)


 BACKGROUND
 India has seen a tremendous surge in COVID-19 cases since past few months. This unpredictable disease has threatened people’s mental health as much as their physical health.
 
 
 OBJECTIVE
 To assess the burden of mental health amid this pandemic, we conducted a cross-sectional study in Indian population. We also assessed the predictors of mental health burden.
 
 
 METHODS
 A cross-sectional, web based study was adopted using the snowball sampling method. Participants were invited to fill a validated questionnaire that assessed the demographic characteristics, Knowledge of Covid-19, quality of sleep (PSQI), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depressive symptoms (CES-D).
 
 
 RESULTS
 Findings in our study revealed that participants were having high Anxiety (43.6%), depressive symptoms (43.8%) and poor sleep quality (56.2%). Multivariable logistic regression analysis suggested that people ≥35 years were prone to have GAD, depressive symptoms and poor sleep quality. Healthcare workers were at higher risk to develop anxiety, depressive symptoms and inferior quality of sleep (P<.000) compared to the other occupations. Females tend to have high anxiety and depression (P<.000). Additionally, People having poor understanding about Covid-19 had more sleep related problems.
 
 
 CONCLUSIONS
 The study findings indicated that the Indian population amid Covid-19 crisis reported to have high anxiety, depressive symptoms and poor sleep quality. Government needs to devise a comprehensive, effective and efficient action plan to address this probing issue.
