COVID-19 made some population groups more miserable than others

Tam-Tri Le, Phenikaa University (Hanoi, Vietnam)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3384-4827

August 11, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of suffering to many people across the whole world. The disease not only directly devastated people’s health but also disrupted normal lifestyles and increased the risk of mental health issues [1,2].

A recent study by Kim et al. (2022) published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine (IF 3.508, according to JCR 2022) [3] revealed that the prevalence of stress, depression, and suicidal attempts did not change significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before. However, the 19- to 39-year-old group in the 2020 group had a higher rate of depression. The study employed data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2019 and 2020, with a sample of >=19-year-old 11,873 participants. The research sample is highly representative of the Korean population.


Sadness, by Tellmeimok (CC BY-SA 4.0); https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sadness_at_the_beach.jpg

To explain why the prevalence of stress, depression, and suicidal attempts were not higher during the pandemic, the authors gave some plausible arguments, attributing the results to the honeymoon effect, influences from public campaigns, and the increase in leisure time. The young adult population, however, was more at risk of depression because they had less coping capability than the older groups. Additionally, job-hunting activities were negatively impacted by the pandemic.

This study provides more insights into the mental health risks within specific susceptible populations in Korea. The findings can be helpful to further studies aiming to explore deeper the psychological mechanism of mental health issues during a crisis.

References

[1] Xie Y, Xu E, Al-Aly Z. (2022). Risks of mental health outcomes in people with covid-19: Cohort study. BMJ, 376, e068993. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-068993

[2] Giuntella O, Hyde K, Saccardo S, Sadoff S. (2021). Lifestyle and mental health disruptions during COVID-19. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(9), e2016632118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2016632118

[3] Kim SY, et al. (2022). Depression, Stress, and Suicide in Korean Adults before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic Using Data from the Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. Journal of Personalized Medicine, 12(8), 1305. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12081305