Mitigating the Psychological Impacts of COVID-19 in Southern Nigeria; Public Awareness of Routine Exercises and Preventive Measures

Bessie Nonyeleum Esimai,Chinyere Ori Elom,Chukwuenyegom Joseph Egbumike,Clementina Nkiru Eze,Dioma U Udeoji,Elizabeth Ukamaka Agunwah,Emmanuel Ifeanyi Obeagu,Eucharia Ijego Asogwa,Ifeyinwa Chizoba Akamike,Okechukwu S Abonyi

doi:10.9734/jpri/2021/v33i30a31617

Abstract

Psychological impacts of COVID-19 outbreak include anxiety and depression. These effects of the pandemic could be avoided by awareness of preventive measures to control the spread of the disease, and to prophylactic measure (routine exercise) to mitigate the psychological impacts of the pandemic. This study aimed at investigating the level of public awareness to the preventive and prophylactic measures against the psychological impacts of COVID-19 outbreak in southern Nigeria. A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted with 1200 community-dwelling working-class individuals were purposefully recruited from three states in the southern Nigeria. Data collected was analysed and presented in descriptive (Frequencies and percentages) and inferential (Chi-square) statistics. P-value was 0.05. Result showed that few respondents (34%) were aware of the preventive measures against psychological impacts due to COVID-19 widespread, through information got majorly from mass and social media. Majority (63%) of the respondents were aware of the efficacy of the prophylactic measure, routine exercises, to mitigating anxiety and depression due to COVID-19 pandemic. There was less public awareness of the effects of the preventive and prophylactic measures on the psychological impact of the pandemic in southern Nigeria. Thus, there is need for policy makers to broaden and strengthen awareness strategies on both measures to improve psychosocial wellbeing especially in the faces of endemic and pandemic.

Highlights

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a public health issue, with effects on individuals and societies
Research Question 1: What is the level of public awareness on the preventive measures to mitigate anxiety and depression during COVID19 outbreak in Southern Nigeria?
Item statement 3; how the respondents know about COVID-19 shows that 1121(95%), 1182(99%), 1045(98%), 887(86%), 460(51%), 609(67%), and 738(77%) of the study respondents reported that they get informed about the pandemic through radio, TV, Social media, office colleagues, school mates, Church/Mosque and friends respectively, while 56(5%), 18(1%), 21(2%), 144(14%), 436(49%), 302(33%), and 219 (23%) of the respondents noted that how they got to know about COVID-19 was not from radio, TV, Social media, office colleagues, school mates, Church/Mosque and friends respectively

Summary

Introduction

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a public health issue, with effects on individuals and societies. It is a contagious viral disease of the beta corona virus family [1]. International (such as World Health Organization - WHO and Centre for Disease Control - CDC) and local authorities (e.g. the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control – NCDC for Nigeria) make efforts to curtail the spread of the viral disease and mitigate the associated pschosomatic and psychosocial implications of the pandemic [4,5]. Mental/psychological and social consequences of COVID-19 have been reported to be associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms; anxiety and depression among community dwelling individuals; healthcare workers and general public [2,6,7,8]. Psychological reactions to COVID-19 pandemic are symptoms of anxiety and depression [9]

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