Psycho-social impact of pandemic among COVID-19 survivors

J Mukhopadhyay *

Department of Community Medicine, Jagannath Gupta Institute of Medical Science & Hospital, Budge-Budge, Kolkata – 700137, India.
 
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2022, 16(01), 018–026
Article DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2022.16.1.0977
 
Publication history: 
Received on 20 August 2022; revised on 29 September 2022; accepted on 02 October 2022
 
Abstract: 
Background: The clobber of COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented public health challenge that disrupted psycho-social resilience of the society projecting an ultimatum since SARS outbreak 2003. Considering the trend, it was decided to ascertain the psyche and mind-set of 72 COVID survivors (actual patients) those came in contact with the scholar during the pandemic in 2020-21 in Kolkata, India.
Methods: A descriptive study employing convenient sampling, conducted by data collection through questionnaire that included socio-demographic and psycho-social data during Aug-Sep 2022. Psycho-social data included perception on health risk, social support, psychological reserve and psychological distress on 5-point Likert scale and was analyzed through suitable descriptive statistics.
Result: Study found the basic traits of survivors like age, sex, employment, job-loss, co-morbidity and occurrence pattern of COVID-19 similar to other documented studies in India. The subjects displayed high health risk perception, satisfaction in Govt. regulation and other social services including food/provisions, need for ever-sought-after social support (57-63%), high psychological distress (82-88%) in the background strong psychological reserve (47-62%) indicating considerable agony during hard trying time.
Conclusion: It is recommended that public health administration must conduct mental health audits during epidemic outbreaks for efficient management of community distress and provide online psycho-therapy in addition to traditional support.
 
Keywords: 
Pandemic; Psycho-social Impact; Psychological Distress; Psychological Reserve
 
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