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Review
. 2025 Jun 6:11:23779608251347847.
doi: 10.1177/23779608251347847. eCollection 2025 Jan-Dec.

Widespread Mental Health Impacts of COVID-19 on Iraq's General Population: A Systematic Review

Sirwan Khalid Ahmed  1   2 , Darya Rostam Ahmed  3 , Radhwan Hussein Ibrahim  4 , Safin Hussein  5 , Hazhar Talaat Abubaker Blbas  6 , Kochr Ali Mahmood  7 , Karzan Qurbani  5 , Abdulmalik Fareeq Saber  8 , Araz Qadir Abdalla  2
Affiliations
Review

Widespread Mental Health Impacts of COVID-19 on Iraq's General Population: A Systematic Review

Sirwan Khalid Ahmed et al. SAGE Open Nurs. .

Abstract

Background and objective: Mental health has emerged as a critical public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this review was to analyze and summarize existing literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the general population in Iraq.

Methods: The systematic reviews were conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The review protocol was registered in PROSPERO with the unique identifier CRD42023423291. Searches were performed in PubMed, Scopus,Medline, and Google Scholar in May 2023 for studies published from January 2020 to January 2023. The researchers used the Joanna Briggs Institute to evaluate the quality of the studies. Data from all the included research in this review were collected and synthesized.

Results: This review included data from 11 high-quality studies conducted in Iraq, involving a total of 8,917 participants. Of these participants, 4,860 (54.5%) were female and 4,057 (45.5%) were male. The aim of these studies was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on mental health. The systematic review yielded important findings regarding the prevalence rates of anxiety, stress, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These rates were estimated to be 54.89%, 48.15%, 49.57%, and 31.35% respectively. It is worth noting that various demographic groups in Iraq exhibited elevated levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD, highlighting the significant burden experienced by individuals. These findings emphasize the wide-ranging effects on different segments of the population, including college students and individuals with a history of COVID-19 infection.

Conclusion: This review highlights the substantial impact of COVID-19 on mental health in Iraq, noting increased levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD among various groups. The findings consistently showed a significant mental health burden on Iraqis, urging healthcare authorities and policymakers to implement targeted interventions to address these challenges promptly.

Keywords: COVID-19; anxiety; depression; fear; mental health; post-traumatic stress disorder; stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA flow diagram.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The overall percentage psychological disorders based included studies. The overall percentage was calculated by combining the percentages reported in all included studies and then dividing by the number of studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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