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. 2021 Mar:142:110366.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2021.110366. Epub 2021 Jan 19.

Early evidence and predictors of mental distress of adults one month in the COVID-19 epidemic in Brazil

Stephen Xu Zhang  1 , Yifei Wang  2 , Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi  3 , Jizhen Li  4 , Valentina Gomes Haensel Schmitt  5
Affiliations

Early evidence and predictors of mental distress of adults one month in the COVID-19 epidemic in Brazil

Stephen Xu Zhang et al. J Psychosom Res. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: We aim to provide early evidence of mental distress and its associated predictors among adults one month into the COVID-19 crisis in Brazil.

Methods: We conducted an online survey of 638 adults in Brazil on March 25-28, 2020, about one month (32 days) cross-sectionally after the first COVID-19 case in South America was confirmed in São Paulo. The 638 adults were in 25 states out of the 26 Brazilian states, with the only exception being Roraima, the least populated state in the Amazon. Of all the participating adults, 24%, 20%, and 18% of them were located in Rio de Janeiro state, Santa Catarina state, and São Paulo state respectively.

Results: In Brazil, 52% (332) of the sampled adults experienced mild or moderate distress, and 18.8% (120) suffered severe distress. Adults who were female, younger, more educated, and exercised less reported higher levels of distress. Each individual's distance from the Brazilian epicenter of São Paulo interacted with age and workplace attendance to predict the level of distress. The "typhoon eye effect" was stronger for people who were older or attended their workplace less. The most vulnerable adults were those who were far from the epicenter and did not go to their workplace in the week before the survey.

Conclusion: Identifying the predictors of distress enables mental health services to better target finding and helping the more mentally vulnerable adults during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Keywords: 2019-nCoV; Coronavirus; Latin America; Mental health; Pandemic; Psychiatric identification.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declares that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(a). Predicted value of CPDI (COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index). (b). Predicted value of CPDI by individuals' distance from the epicenter and age bracket. (c). Predicted value of CPDI by individuals' distance from the epicenter and workplace attendance.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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