Study to assess the accumulative effect on behaviour of the COVID-19 pandemic

Researchers at the UAB Stress and Health Research Group, in collaboration with the UB, the UOC and more than 50 researchers from American and European institutes, will analyse the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on human behaviour in over 30 countries.

18/05/2020

Researchers at the UAB Stress and Health Research Group, in collaboration with the Department of Research and Diagnosis Methods in Education of the UB and the Department of Psychology Studies and Education Science of the eHealth Centre at the UOC, and a team of 50 collaborating researchers from 20 universities in 15 European countries and the Unites States, have launched the PSY-COVID project. This large database will serve for both research teams and health authorities to analyse the psychological effects of mobility restriction measures adopted by a large number of countries with the aim of controlling the coronavirus outbreak.

The study will be based on the results of a questionnaire in which researchers hope to obtain massive responses from over 30 countries. One of the objectives of the research will be to discover the effects of the different measures to restrict mobility among the populations of each country.

According to the coordinator of the study, UAB Professor Antoni Sanz, "by using the same questionnaire model in such diverse countries, we hope to discover whether the intensity and duration of measures implemented by each government, or socio-cultural differences, are responsible for the disparity observed in the prevalence of anxiety and depression among the populations. This will then allow to identify the groups which have suffered the effects of these measures more severely, which some preliminary studies already clearly point to healthcare workers and people severely affected by the virus, where there seems to be a great number of cases of post traumatic stress”.

The large database researchers aim to compile with the results will help to identify factors affecting the mental health of individuals, such as the conditions of physical spaces and the social context in which each person has experienced confinement of restrictions in mobility.

Ability to adapt

In contrast to other studies focusing solely on mental health, this international study will also analyse the capacity of individuals to adapt to extraordinary circumstances. In this sense, researchers aim to evaluate the concept of "posttraumatic growth", an emotional and cognitive improvement experienced by people after having suffered and overcome adverse circumstances, which in this case would be social isolation and becoming infected with COVID-19.

For Antoni Sanz, "as long as we do not have a vaccine or an effective antiviral treatment, we can only depend on prevention measures as a way to control SARS-CoV-2; identifying the factors that drive people to follow these measures or not may be critical in defining public health policies that can guarantee that emergency units do not collapse and thus prevent thousands of deaths around the world".

Link to the PSY-COVID project questionnaire

Good health and well-being