Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is a great threat to both physical and mental health as it may lead to psychological stress connected with an economic crisis, threat of unemployment, or fear of losing family members. Emerging data shows that the general public may be vulnerable to the pandemic-related stress and experience frequently prevalent anxiety. A study involving 471 subjects (85.6% female) was conducted online during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used the following scales: Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Revised University of California, Los Angeles (R-UCLA) Loneliness Scale, and Daily Life Fatigue scale (DLF). Women had higher mean scores of depression, loneliness, and daily life fatigue and more often than males started exercising. Among people professionally active before the pandemic, there were more cases of increased alcohol consumption than among students. No differences in alcohol consumption patterns were found between genders. People living alone had higher scores of loneliness and daily life fatigue compared to those living with someone. Respondents who started taking any new drugs during COVID-19 home confinement had higher outcomes in all questionnaires. During home confinement, high scores of depression, insomnia, loneliness, and everyday fatigue were observed.
Highlights
The outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic revealed that the world had been completely unprepared for it
This clearly shows the scale of psychological and psychiatric problems related to the pandemic, both among healthcare workers—who in their previous work have already dealt with numerous stressful situations related to other peoples’ health—and the general public, for whom this situation may be a kind of a reminder of value and fragility of humans’ health [10,27]
This can lead to further disorders related to social isolation
Summary
The outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic revealed that the world had been completely unprepared for it. Currently over 50 vaccine candidates are in pre-clinical studies with some in Phase I [2]. An effective vaccine is expected to be available in early 2021. The first confirmed COVID-19 case in Poland was announced on 4 March 2020. On 24 March, the Polish government announced strict restrictions, which forced the vast majority of Polish citizens to obey home confinement. This meant that people were obliged to spend most of their day at home—schools, universities, public institutions operated remotely (online), most of the workers were asked to work from home. The restrictions included: mandatory covering of mouth and nose in public
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