COVID-19 pandemic and psychological wellbeing among health care workers and general population: A systematic-review and meta-analysis of the current evidence from India

INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared as pandemic and measures adopted for its control included quarantine of at-risk, isolation of infected along with other measures such as lockdown, restrictions on movement, and social interactions. Both the pandemic and these measures have the potential to cause mental health problems among individuals. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to investigate and estimate the prevalence of psychological well-being, particularly from an Indian perspective using systematic review and meta-analysis of existing literature. METHODS: We searched in the PubMed database, starting from the onset of the current pandemic and until 10th October 2020 to synthesize evidence on mental health outcomes from India. DerSimonian and Laird method of the random-effects meta-analysis was employed and heterogeneity between studies was assessed using the Chi-square based Cochran's Q statistic and I-squared (I(2)) statistics. RESULTS: The pooled prevalence of stress in nine studies was 60.7% (95% CI: 42.3%–77.7%), depression in eight studies was 32.7% (95% CI: 24.6%–41.3%), anxiety in six studies was 34.1% (95% CI: 26.3%–42.3%) and sleep disturbances in six studies was 26.7% (95% CI: 13.9%–41.8%). As expected, high heterogeneity was observed in the above-mentioned outcomes. Sub-group analysis showed that Health Care Workers (HCWs) had a higher prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression & psychological distress in comparison to the general population. CONCLUSION: A significant impact on psychological well-being during COVID-19 was observed in India as common adverse outcomes were stress (61%), psychological distress (43%), anxiety (34%), depression (33%), and sleep disturbances (27%). Thus the COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented threat to mental health, which should become a priority for public health strategies.