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
Review
. 2023 Feb 13;20(4):3262.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20043262.

COVID-19, Mental Health, and Chronic Illnesses: A Syndemic Perspective

Kiran Saqib  1 , Afaf Saqib Qureshi  2 , Zahid Ahmad Butt  1
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19, Mental Health, and Chronic Illnesses: A Syndemic Perspective

Kiran Saqib et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is an epidemiological and psychological crisis; what it does to the body is quite well known by now, and more research is underway, but the syndemic impact of COVID-19 and mental health on underlying chronic illnesses among the general population is not completely understood.

Methods: We carried out a literature review to identify the potential impact of COVID-19 and related mental health issues on underlying comorbidities that could affect the overall health of the population.

Results: Many available studies have highlighted the impact of COVID-19 on mental health only, but how complex their interaction is in patients with comorbidities and COVID-19, the absolute risks, and how they connect with the interrelated risks in the general population, remain unknown. The COVID-19 pandemic can be recognized as a syndemic due to; synergistic interactions among different diseases and other health conditions, increasing overall illness burden, emergence, spread, and interactions between infectious zoonotic diseases leading to new infectious zoonotic diseases; this is together with social and health interactions leading to increased risks in vulnerable populations and exacerbating clustering of multiple diseases.

Conclusion: There is a need to develop evidence to support appropriate and effective interventions for the overall improvement of health and psychosocial wellbeing of at-risk populations during this pandemic. The syndemic framework is an important framework that can be used to investigate and examine the potential benefits and impact of codesigning COVID-19/non-communicable diseases (NCDs)/mental health programming services which can tackle these epidemics concurrently.

Keywords: COVID-19; chronic diseases; mental health; pandemic; syndemic.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual framework for COVID-19, Mental Health, and Chronic diseases Syndemic.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tsai A.C. Syndemics: A theory in search of data or data in search of a theory? Social Science and Medicine. Soc. Sci. Med. 2018;206:117–122. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.03.040. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Definitions|PCSI|NCHHSTP|CDC National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. [(accessed on 18 June 2021)];2014 Available online: https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/programintegration/definitions.htm.
    1. Singer M., Bulled N., Ostrach B., Mendenhall E. Syndemics and the biosocial conception of health. Lancet Lancet. 2017;389:941–950. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30003-X. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Singer M., Clair S. Syndemics and Public Health: Reconceptualizing Disease in Bio-Social Context. Med. Anthr. Q. 2003;17:423–441. doi: 10.1525/maq.2003.17.4.423. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lawler O.K., Allan H.L., Baxter P.W., Castagnino R., Tor M.C., Dann L.E., Hungerford J., Karmacharya D., Lloyd T.J., López-Jara M.J., et al. The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Intricately Linked to Biodiversity Loss and Ecosystem Health. Lancet Planet. Health. 2021;5:e840–e850. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00258-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed