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Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: This systematic review aims to 1) summarize the prevalence of anxiety, depression, distress, insomnia, and PTSD in the adult population during the first year of the COVID pandemic in developing countries and 2) uncover and highlight the uneven distribution of research on mental health in...

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Autores principales: Chen, Jiyao, Zhang, Stephen X, Yin, Allen, Yáñez, Jaime A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: International Society of Global Health 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9126304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35604881
http://dx.doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05011
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author Chen, Jiyao
Zhang, Stephen X
Yin, Allen
Yáñez, Jaime A
author_facet Chen, Jiyao
Zhang, Stephen X
Yin, Allen
Yáñez, Jaime A
author_sort Chen, Jiyao
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: This systematic review aims to 1) summarize the prevalence of anxiety, depression, distress, insomnia, and PTSD in the adult population during the first year of the COVID pandemic in developing countries and 2) uncover and highlight the uneven distribution of research on mental health in all developing countries across regions. METHODS: Several literature databases were systemically searched for meta-analyses published by September 22, 2021, on the prevalence rates of mental health symptoms in developing countries worldwide. We meta-analysed the raw data of the individual empirical results from the previous meta-analysis papers in developing countries in different regions. RESULTS: The prevalence rates of mental health symptoms were summarized based on 341 empirical studies with a total of 1 704 072 participants from 40 out of 167 developing countries in Africa, Asia (East, Southeast, South, and West), Europe, and Latin America. Comparatively, Africa (39%) and West Asia (35%) had the worse overall mental health symptoms, followed by Latin America (32%). The prevalence rates of overall mental health symptoms of medical students (38%), general adult students (30%), and frontline health care workers (HCWs) (27%) were higher than those of general HCWs (25%) and general populations (23%). Among five mental health symptoms, distress (29%) and depression (27%) were the most prevalent. Interestingly, people in the least developing countries suffered less than those in emergent and other developing countries. The various instruments employed lead to result heterogeneity, demonstrating the importance of using the well-established instruments with the standard cut-off points (eg, GAD-7, GAD-2, and DASS-21 for anxiety, PHQ-9 and DASS-21 for depression, and ISI for insomnia). CONCLUSIONS: The research effort on mental health in developing countries during COVID-19 has been highly uneven in the scope of countries and mental health outcomes. This meta-analysis, the largest on this topic to date, shows that the mental health symptoms are highly prevalent yet differ across regions. The accumulated systematic evidence from this study can help enable the prioritization of mental health assistance efforts to allocate attention and resources across countries and regions.
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spelling pubmed-91263042022-05-31 Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis Chen, Jiyao Zhang, Stephen X Yin, Allen Yáñez, Jaime A J Glob Health Research Theme 1: COVID-19 Pandemic BACKGROUND: This systematic review aims to 1) summarize the prevalence of anxiety, depression, distress, insomnia, and PTSD in the adult population during the first year of the COVID pandemic in developing countries and 2) uncover and highlight the uneven distribution of research on mental health in all developing countries across regions. METHODS: Several literature databases were systemically searched for meta-analyses published by September 22, 2021, on the prevalence rates of mental health symptoms in developing countries worldwide. We meta-analysed the raw data of the individual empirical results from the previous meta-analysis papers in developing countries in different regions. RESULTS: The prevalence rates of mental health symptoms were summarized based on 341 empirical studies with a total of 1 704 072 participants from 40 out of 167 developing countries in Africa, Asia (East, Southeast, South, and West), Europe, and Latin America. Comparatively, Africa (39%) and West Asia (35%) had the worse overall mental health symptoms, followed by Latin America (32%). The prevalence rates of overall mental health symptoms of medical students (38%), general adult students (30%), and frontline health care workers (HCWs) (27%) were higher than those of general HCWs (25%) and general populations (23%). Among five mental health symptoms, distress (29%) and depression (27%) were the most prevalent. Interestingly, people in the least developing countries suffered less than those in emergent and other developing countries. The various instruments employed lead to result heterogeneity, demonstrating the importance of using the well-established instruments with the standard cut-off points (eg, GAD-7, GAD-2, and DASS-21 for anxiety, PHQ-9 and DASS-21 for depression, and ISI for insomnia). CONCLUSIONS: The research effort on mental health in developing countries during COVID-19 has been highly uneven in the scope of countries and mental health outcomes. This meta-analysis, the largest on this topic to date, shows that the mental health symptoms are highly prevalent yet differ across regions. The accumulated systematic evidence from this study can help enable the prioritization of mental health assistance efforts to allocate attention and resources across countries and regions. International Society of Global Health 2022-05-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9126304/ /pubmed/35604881 http://dx.doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05011 Text en Copyright © 2022 by the Journal of Global Health. All rights reserved. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
spellingShingle Research Theme 1: COVID-19 Pandemic
Chen, Jiyao
Zhang, Stephen X
Yin, Allen
Yáñez, Jaime A
Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis
title Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis
title_fullStr Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full_unstemmed Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis
title_short Mental health symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis
title_sort mental health symptoms during the covid-19 pandemic in developing countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis
topic Research Theme 1: COVID-19 Pandemic
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9126304/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35604881
http://dx.doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05011
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