Health Considerations During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2, the name given to the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, was first reported in the city of Wuhan from the Hubei region of China. Officially recognised at the beginning of 2020, it rapidly spread from Wuhan to the rest of China, eventually taking hold in the rest of the world despite global efforts to contain it. Of these efforts, the most notable is the implementation of lockdown policies which were meant to reduce as much as possible the spread of the virus, thus reducing the burden on the healthcare systems ("flatten the curve"), as well as buy time to develop more effective treatments. This paper intends to study the mental and physical effects exerted by these policies on people worldwide. The online survey has collected responses from 1,586 individuals from across the world, on which the authors employed varied statistical methods such as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and multivariate analysis. The findings presented in the paper suggest that several effects, such as problems focusing, insomnia, feelings of guilt or pessimism, can be directly attributed to the lockdown-induced changes in people's behaviours and routines. The findings are not only indicative of the need for social interaction and physical activity, but also of the importance of factual information available to the public during such crises, and of the emotional support and assistance required by people to cope with situations like this.