International Journal of Medical Discoveries

Abstract

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on countries globally in terms of changing their economies, policies, and social norms in both personal and professional lives. Research shows that this pandemic also had a psychological impact on people. However, there is a lack of evidence regarding this in the context of Kuwait. Thus, this study aims to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 on the Kuwaiti population and suggest ways to improve their quality of life (QoL).
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from 26-Sep-2020 to 26-Oct-2020. The questionnaire consists of demographic questions, the generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-7 scale), the Centre for Epidemiology Scale for Depression (CES-D) scale, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Data is analyzed using frequency and Chi-Square tests using IBM SPSS software.
Results: A total of 998 respondents were included. A higher prevalence of GAD was reported by women (62%), and participants with more than three family members (50%) which were 88.7% of the sample size. Moreover, 94% of participants experienced poor sleep quality during COVID-19, however, they did not take any sleep medications (89.5%). Respondents faced physical issues including general pain (61.4%), coughing or snoring loudly (37.2%), and waking up in the middle of the night (44.7%). A range of depressive symptoms were experienced by a majority of respondents as well.
Conclusions: Mental health problems were strongly associated with gender, age, marital status, education level, occupation, number of people living in the same household, working in close contact with people with COVID-19, and knowledge of COVID-19 from news and social media. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the Kuwaiti population’s mental health, particularly women.