Impact on mental health due to COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study in Bangladesh

Abstract

The government of Bangladesh has implemented the “Stay Home” policy following the WHO recommendation to resist the community transmission of Covid-19. As a result, the routine activities of all government, semi-government establishments, including educational institutions, are severely affected, and the country's economic growth becomes slowed down. To overcome such a situation, the relevant authorities have introduced the “Work from Home” policy for the employees and “Remote Education” for students. However, due to the persistence of multi-dimensional socio-economic problems, many employees and students face big challenges in performing their regular jobs while adopting such a policy. Consequently, enormous psychological anxiety has been developed for all people, including students, parents, employees, etc., and concurrently created severe changes in their behavior. This study aims to analyze the reasons for the behavioral changes of the employees, students, academic staff, and family members of different ages due to psychological anxiety, stress, or physical issues. A comprehensive online-based survey has been carried out on people working in various sectors in Bangladesh. A modified Apriori Algorithm has been used to sort out the associations between the causes and types of behavioral changes. Analyzed data revealed a massive human behavioral change in most participants. This finding indicates that the negligence of those significant human behavioral changes may cause a higher risk of creating psychological imbalance. Therefore, there is a need to have a solid understanding of the reasons for the behavioral changes and set up standard guidelines to maintain “Work from Home” in this Covid-19 situation to avoid psychological imbalance. Based on this study, some suggestions have been given for implementation by the government on an urgent basis.