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. 2020 Oct 22;15(10):e0240501.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240501. eCollection 2020.

Psychological impact of mass quarantine on population during pandemics-The COVID-19 Lock-Down (COLD) study

Deeksha Pandey  1 , Suvrati Bansal  1 , Shubham Goyal  1 , Akanksha Garg  1 , Nikita Sethi  2 , Dan Isaac Pothiyill  1 , Edavana Santhosh Sreelakshmi  1 , Mehmood Gulab Sayyad  3 , Rishi Sethi  4
Affiliations

Psychological impact of mass quarantine on population during pandemics-The COVID-19 Lock-Down (COLD) study

Deeksha Pandey et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Quarantine often is an unpleasant experience. The aim of this study is to explore the degree of psychological distress in terms of-Depression, Anxiety and Stress among the adult population in India during the strict 21 days mandatory lockdown. We hypothesize that quantification of psychological impact of current situation will help us to modify the policies and implementation strategies. This assessment might also help in future to keep targeted services in place, to cope up with the psychological distress of the quarantined population.

Method: A cross sectional survey design was adopted to assess the psychological state of general population in India, during the COVID-19 mandatory lockdown period, with the help of a validated questionnaire.

Findings: The reported prevalence of depression was around 30.5%, which was the highest among the variables of psychological health. Anxiety was reported by 22.4%, followed by stress which was seen in 10.8% of respondents. In the third week the incidence of depression (37.8% versus 23.4%; p<0.001), anxiety (26.6% versus 18.2%; p<0.001) and stress (12.2% versus 9.3%; p<0.045) was reported to be significantly higher as compared to second week.

Interpretation: Our results suggest a progressively detrimental impact of lockdown on various aspects of psychological health. We noticed around eight to ten fold increase in the prevalence of depression (30.5%) and anxiety (22.4%) during lockdown, as compared to baseline statistics in Indian population (3·1-3·6% for depressive disorders and 3·0-3·5% for anxiety disorders).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Impact of duration of lockdown on psychological health.
This graph depicts day wise prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress in our study cohort.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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