Abstract
The novelty of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is that it is occurring in a globalized society enhanced by digital capabilities. Our aim was to analyze the psychological and emotional states of participants in different pandemic-related contexts, with a focus on their digital and physical distancing behaviors. The online survey was applied during the ascending phase of the pandemic in March 2020 in two neighboring EU countries: Italy and Croatia. The study subjects involved four groups, two directly affected by epidemiological measures and two serving as controls—(1) participants from Italy who were in lockdown (Italy group), (2) participants from Croatia who were not in lockdown but who were in direct contact with an infected person and underwent epidemiological measures (CRO-contact group), (3) participants from Croatia who were in an analogous situation but not near the same infected person (CRO-no contact group), and (4) participants from Croatia who were not aware of any infected person (CRO-unrelated group). The survey consisted of validated scales of psychological and emotional states, and custom-made questionnaires on the digital (online) and physical (off-line) behavior of the participants. The Italy group in lockdown had higher self-perceived scores for depression, stress, post-traumatic intrusion, and avoidance, as well as the highest digital activity and physical distancing than the not-in-lockdown Croatian groups. The insight into the extent of online activities and off-line isolation allowed for the introduction of Digital Activity and Physical Distancing Scores. Self-perceived post-traumatic avoidance was higher in both the Italy and CRO-contact groups than the control CRO-no contact and CRO-unrelated groups, and higher avoidance correlated with higher Digital Activity and Physical Distancing Scores. Being in direct contact with the infected person, the CRO-contact group had no other alterations than unexpectedly lower post-traumatic hyperarousal when compared with the Italy group. The Italy group in lockdown demonstrated higher self-perceived psychological toll together with higher digital activity and physical distancing than Croatian groups not in lockdown, even when compared with the affected CRO-contact group. The study outcomes suggest that the general emergency measures influenced citizens in lockdown more than exposure to the virus through direct contact with an infected person.
Highlights
Wars, natural disasters, financial crises, terror, or similar damaging situations involving whole countries, regions, or communities affect mental and physical health and leave longlasting personal and societal consequences
The first empirical reports on psychological status of the general population due to the COVID19 pandemic confirmed that levels of anxiety and depression were higher than those reported before the pandemic and that they increase over time (e.g., Gao et al, 2020; Wang et al, 2020)
The initiation of the study during the early ascending phase of the pandemic in March 2020 was dependent on the serendipity of having access to a unique group of Croatian Ph.D. students, who attended class (3 hours long) with an infected person identified as the third COVID-19-positive individual in Croatia
Summary
Natural disasters, financial crises, terror, or similar damaging situations involving whole countries, regions, or communities affect mental and physical health and leave longlasting personal and societal consequences. Wars in Afghanistan (Scholte et al, 2004) and Iraq (Taylor et al, 2014); earthquakes in Northridge, United States (McMillen et al, 2000) and L’Aquila, Italy (Ciocca et al, 2015); the 9/11 and Paris terrorist attacks (Updegraff et al, 2008; Vandentorren et al, 2018); the financial crisis during 2008 (McInerney et al, 2013); and the Ebola and swine flu pandemics (Jones and Salathé, 2009; Jalloh et al, 2018) all have one thing in common: considerable negative impact on affected communities These unfortunate events had notable psychological consequences, related to depression, anxiety, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Beaglehole et al, 2018). These findings were demonstrated in the case of past pandemics (Hawryluck et al, 2004; Mihashi et al, 2009; Liu et al, 2012)
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