Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec 9;8(1):127.
doi: 10.1186/s40359-020-00497-z.

Self-reported psychological distress during the COVID-19 outbreak in Nepal: findings from an online survey

Kamal Gautam  1 , Ramesh P Adhikari  2   3 , Aman Sen Gupta  2 , Rajan Kumar Shrestha  2 , Pitambar Koirala  4 , Suraj Koirala  4
Affiliations

Self-reported psychological distress during the COVID-19 outbreak in Nepal: findings from an online survey

Kamal Gautam et al. BMC Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: A lower respiratory tract infection caused by novel coronavirus termed as Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) was first identified in China and subsequently took the form of pandemic. Studies on disease outbreak in the past and recent COVID-19 outbreak have demonstrated increased psychological distress and adverse impacts on mental health and psychological wellbeing of people. However, the impact of COVID-19 on psychological wellbeing of people in Nepal hasn't been studied adequately. So, this paper aims to report the findings from a social media survey on psychological impacts of COVID-19 in Nepal.

Methods: Data were collected through social media from 2082 Nepalese respondents between 23rd April, 2020 and 3rd May, 2020. A total of 2014 respondents who were currently residing in Nepal were included in the analysis.

Results: The study suggested that half of the respondents suffered from at least one symptom of psychological distress whereas 32% suffered from two or more symptoms of psychological distress such as restlessness, fearfulness, anxiety and worry and sadness in the past 2 weeks preceding the survey date. The findings further suggested that respondents having lower family income, residing in rented room, and participants from province 2 were more likely to suffer from both single and multiple symptoms of psychological distress.

Conclusion: The study has shown high prevalence of psychological distress amongst the Nepalese respondents following COVID-19 outbreak. Appropriate mental health and psychosocial support response needs to be instituted to adequately respond to psychological impacts of the epidemic.

Keywords: Coronavirus; Nepal; Perceived psychological distress; Social media; Survey.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

References

    1. Li Q, Guan X, Wu P, Wang X, Zhou L, Tong Y, Ren R, Leung KS, Lau EH, Wong JY. Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of novel coronavirus–infected pneumonia. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:1199–1207. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001316. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J, Zhao X, Huang B, Shi W, Lu R. A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:727–733. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Xiang Y-T, Yang Y, Li W, Zhang L, Zhang Q, Cheung T, Ng CH. Timely mental health care for the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak is urgently needed. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020;7(3):228–229. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30046-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kang L, Li Y, Hu S, Chen M, Yang C, Yang BX, Wang Y, Hu J, Lai J, Ma X. The mental health of medical workers in Wuhan, China dealing with the 2019 novel coronavirus. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020;7(3):e14. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30047-X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mihashi M, Otsubo Y, Yinjuan X, Nagatomi K, Hoshiko M, Ishitake T. Predictive factors of psychological disorder development during recovery following SARS outbreak. Health Psychol. 2009;28(1):91. doi: 10.1037/a0013674. - DOI - PubMed