Media use pattern as an indicator of mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic: Dataset from India

This article presents data on the media use pattern of respondents with different degrees of mental well-being and mental anxiety in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected data on demographic variables, patterns of media engagement, and levels of mental well-being and mental anxiety among the Indian adult population in the COVID-19 era. A web-based cross-sectional online survey was conducted to obtain data on two main aspects in the context of COVID-19: mental well-being and mental anxiety and engagement with the media, both television and other social media channels. Using respondent-driven convenient sampling method, 426 Indian adults (age ≥ 18 years) residing in the country responded to the survey. The survey was conducted 3 weeks after the nationwide lockdown was enforced between April 16 and 22, 2020. Besides providing the risk messages about the disease outbreak, the media channels provided sensational coverage of it that might have amplified the risk perception of the public; thus, media use pattern may be a strong indicator of the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of an individual. Therefore, this dataset could serve as a reference base for in-depth studies on the association between media amplification of a pandemic and the mental health status of the common public in the context of social disaster.