RELATIONSHIP ON PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON GENERAL POPULATION

Abstract

BACKGROUND: During the early stages of the pandemic in India, The lives of people were drastically affected with lock-down and fear related to the disease’s potential effects and transmission. The fear due to the contraction of COVID -19 is on the rise because of the death tolls and global spread. Hence, this study attempted to find the psychological impact of COVID-19 among general people; and understand its relationship with the emotional changes on depression, anxiety and stress. This can potentially help policy makers in formulating comprehensive interventions. AIM: To find out the relationship on psychological impact in the perspectives of depression, anxiety and stress on COVID-19 among general population by using (DASS-21) scale MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community based non-experimental study with descriptive survey research design was used. The study was conducted among the general public in and around Karnataka. Snow-ball sampling technique/self-selection was adopted in order to select the samples of 250general public who fulfils the selection criteria. The data was collected from the general public by using DASS-21 is a set of three self-report scales designed to measure the emotional status of depression, anxiety and stress through self-administered method with the help of Google forms from 24th August to 31st August 2020. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used for analyzing the data. RESULTS: Regarding age in years, 57% of the general population were between 21-30 years old, 78% were male and 22% were female; 30% of them were qualified with under-graduation, 66% of them were unmarried, 45% of the public were students and 49% were from urban area of Karnataka. The relationship of psychological impact among the general population on screening in the perspectives of depression, anxiety and stress on COVID-19 were identified. Regarding relationship between stress and anxiety the Pearson correlation r value is 0.758 which is statistically significant at p<0.01, similarly on relationship between anxiety and depression r=0.728 which is also statistically significant at p<0.01and the relationship between depression and stress r=0.809 which is also statistically significant at p<0.01 CONCLUSION: The present findings of the study state that the general population were vicarious towards their emotional status in terms of depression, anxiety and stress. To conclude COVID-19 has a very strong psychological impact on the general population. Therefore, increased attention should be paid to the psychological problems of the public, especially students under the situation of the spread and control of COVID-19.