COVID-19 stress, health issues, and correlations with different genders and age groups

Abstract

ABSTRACT This cross-sectional study was conducted during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and aimed to investigate how perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 at the early stages of the pandemic is associated with perceptions of stress and accompanying health issues among different population groups. This study found the top five stressors for the sample population: difficulties/problems with work; social media news, emotional problems; non-social media news; and financial issues. The ANOVA test reveals that female respondents were impacted by the stressors at a higher degree than male respondents. This study found that female respondents were impacted by interpersonal stressors (relationships with friends and emotional problems) to a higher degree than male respondents. The ANOVA analysis shows that young adults had higher mean values in the perception of the following stressors during the COVID-19 crisis: emotional problems, family problems, difficulties/problems with work, and unemployment. Learning about how people perceive COVID-19 related stress and its impact on their health, particularly in the pandemic early and the most uncertain stages, can allow business and health professionals to develop targeted interventions for different population groups, including strategies that can influence pandemic preventative behavioural patterns.