Abstract
Introduction: During the unprecedented lockdown, COVID-19 is causing people to suffer from mental disorders in response to strict containment measures. Latin America is the third most severely affected continent, and restrictive measures can have many negative effects on mental health (such as anxiety, depression, and stress) that may arise with fear. We aimed to measure the spread of fear of COVID-19 in the Latin American population. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective study in 535 participants of six countries of Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru), and a country of Europe (Spain) as a control, during 2020. We used the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. Results: The mean age was 31.2±13.2 years (70.8% under 30 years) and the majority were women (57.9%) and 76.6% had a technical, university, or postgraduate studies. Seven percent of participants had high rates of fear of COVID-19, these high estimates of fear were observed in Argentines (14.3%, score range: 28-31%), of Peruvians (10.2%, score range: 27-35%), and Mexicans (5.7%, score range: 27-29%). Both Peru (p=0.003) and Mexico (p=0.0001) showed significant differences from the control country. We showed low levels of fear in 57.1%, 45.5%, 42.9%, and 41.2% of Argentines, Colombians, Bolivians, and Peruvians, respectively. No differences in low levels of fear we found among age groups (p> 0.05), however, we find differences between genders (p=0.001). Conclusions: These results suggested low levels of fear in six Latin American countries, highlighting the need to contextualize fear behavior as a key element in people’s psychological well-being and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
During the unprecedented lockdown, COVID-19 is causing people to suffer from mental disorders in response to strict containment measures
Seven percent of participants had high rates of fear of COVID-19, these high estimates of fear were observed in Argentines (14.3%, score range: 28-31%), of Peruvians (10.2%, score range: 27-35%), and Mexicans (5.7%, score range: 27-29%)
As COVID-19 has spread in the region we can observe that some countries have suffered a higher impact than others due to series of factors are affecting communities’ mental health, as the inequality in the provision of healthcare services and lack of personal protective equipment, the quarantine, social distancing and the restrictions that have produced an increase in domestic violence [5], the massive loss of jobs or the urgency for providing families with food from householders who survive on their daily income [6,7,8,9]
Summary
COVID-19 is causing people to suffer from mental disorders in response to strict containment measures. COVID-19 alone is a reason to generate concern and fear among people, yet, this is aggravated when some sectors have to worry about how it is affecting their economy, education, or personal relationships, which raise the probability of negative outcomes including domestic violence and suicidal thoughts [10,11]. This has been already seen and studied in regions where the pandemic has spread earlier, with the notable effort of Ahorsu et al [12] who developed a scale to measure the fear generated in that region. These studies have verified their own “Fear of COVID-19 Scale” (FCV-19S) among the affected population, but they have not focused on analyzing the extent of region-wide fear, since fear may vary considerably in each population
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