The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health & wellbeing among home-quarantined Bangladeshi students: A cross-sectional pilot study.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has imposed threats on both physical and mental health since its outbreak. This study aimed to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health among a representative sample of home-quarantined Bangladeshi adults. A cross-sectional design was used with an online survey completed by a convenience sample recruited via social media. A total of 1,427 respondents were recruited, and their mental health was assessed by the DASS-21 measure. The prevalence of anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms was 33.7% and 57.9%, respectively, and 59.7% reported mild to extremely severe levels of stress. Perceptions that the pandemic disrupted life events, affected mental health, jobs, the economy and education, predictions of a worsening situation, and uncertainty of the health care system capacities were significantly associated with poor mental health outcomes. Multivariate logistic regressions showed that sociodemographic factors and perceptions of COVID-19 significantly predict mental health outcomes. These findings warrant the consideration of easily accessible low-intensity mental health interventions during and beyond this pandemic.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09603123.2020.1802409

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the adult population in Bangladesh: a nationwide cross-sectional study.

Mental health problems in students are considered a public health challenge. We assessed the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress (DAS) with the DASS-21, as well as associated factors, among university students in Bangladesh early in the COVID-19 outbreak. We hypothesized high levels of DAS and their associations with previously reported factors (e.g., poor sleep, lack of exercise, heavy internet use) and those linked to disadvantage (e.g., low monthly family income). We also enquired about participants' satisfaction with their pursuit of their academic studies while living under COVID-19 restrictions. An internet-based survey was conducted during the month of April 2020, involving 3,122 Bangladeshi university students aged 18 to 29 years (59.5% males; mean age 21.4±2 years). Prevalence estimates of depression, anxiety and stress were, respectively, 76.1%, 71.5% and 70.1% for at least mild symptoms, 62.9%, 63.6% and 58.6% for at least moderate symptoms, 35.2%, 40.3%, and 37.7% for at least severe symptoms and 19.7%, 27.5% and 16.5% for at least very severe symptoms. The present estimates of DAS were more prevalent than in previous pre-COVID-19 studies among Bangladeshi university students. Regression analyses with DASS-21-score as a dependent variable revealed associations with factors mostly as hypothesized. The largest effect size on DAS symptoms was related to students' satisfaction with their academic studies during the pandemic. As this survey used cross-sectional and self-reported methods, causality cannot be inferred. Mental health monitoring of students attempting to cope with the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak may be useful and feasible.

/pdf/psychological-responses-during-the-covid-19-outbreak-among-5wlr6t2k0s.pdf

Psychological responses during the COVID-19 outbreak among university students in Bangladesh.

Depression, anxiety and stress are recognised as global public health problems especially in developing countries. Early detection of these disorders is essential to provide psychological interventions for individuals experiencing these negative emotional conditions. This study determined the Nigerian psychometric properties for the 21-item version of the depression, anxiety and stress scale among a sample of medical students. Two hundred and forty medical students from the Lagos State University College of Medicine, Lagos, Nigeria completed the depression anxiety and stress scale, state trait anxiety inventory and self-rating depression scale. The reliability, discriminative, concurrent and convergent properties were determined. The reliability of DASS-21 showed that it has excellent Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.81, 0.89 and 0.78 for the subscales of depressive, anxiety and stress respectively. It was found to have excellent internal consistency, discriminative, concurrent and convergent validities. The depression and anxiety subscales of DASS-21 had good correlations with self-rating depression scale and state trait anxiety inventory. The DASS-21 was found to have  commendable psychometric properties. It is reliable, valid and easy to administer. Its utility by clinicians will enhance the diagnoses of depression, anxiety and stress among university students. Keywords: DASS-21, depression, anxiety, Stress, psychometric properties, Lagos, Nigeria

/pdf/psychometric-properties-of-the-21-item-depression-anxiety-3oko64uc9w.pdf

Psychometric properties of the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21)

Now that we’ve covered some basics in the previous chapters, let’s see how we can use Google Data Studio for another real-world situation: analyzing the data resulting from an online survey to gather customer information for a client. This chapter is based on a real-life project that we did for a popular travel company. For a client to get an interactive analysis of their customer data without expensive visualization tools is not only cost-efficient but also incredibly useful. It gave our client insight that they could use to develop their content and marketing strategy to better target the customers.

An Online Survey

Standard scale to assess the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress among MBBS students are essential to take necessary steps to treat or prevent any psychiatric morbidity. But there was no such convenient tool in Bangla to measure the stated symptoms. With an objective to obtain a convenient scale to measure severity of above symptoms, short version of Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS 21) was translated into Bangla and the study was carried out to validate this Bangla version with permission from the author of the original instrument. Two translations and back translations were carried out. A harmonized version was produced after meetings by persons involved in translation process in meetings. After pretesting on ten students and reviewing by panel of experts, finalized Bangla version of DASS 21 (DASS 21 -BV) was obtained. A cross sectional study was carried out among MBBS students of Pabna Medical College, Pabna using purposive sampling technique to validate this scale. They were given both Bangla and English version of the scale 3 to 7 days apart. Analysis was done on 15 samples. Correlation for depression subscale was 0.976, anxiety subscale was 0.917 and stress subscale was 0.931. Correlation was significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Cronbach’s Alpha for Depression, Anxiety and Stress subscales were 0.987, 0.957, 0.964 respectively. This Validated Bangla version of DASS 21 can be used to measure severity of depression among medical students and persons having similar academic background treatable. Bang J Psychiatry Dec 2014; 28(2): 67-70

/pdf/translation-of-dass-21-into-bangla-and-validation-among-2frsokulqp.pdf

Translation of DASS 21 into Bangla and validation among medical students

Psychotherapy for child and adolescent with psychiatric disorder is relatively a newer concept in Bangladesh. This cross sectional study was done to determine the pattern of psychotherapy provided by the psychotherapy department for children and adolescents with psychiatric disorder in National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from June 2010 to November 2014. Total 121 samples were taken purposefully from the records of psychotherapy department where data were collected retrospectively using check list. Results showed that among respondents more were boys than girls (64.5% vs. 35.5%) whereas their mean (±SD) age was 12.1 (±3.2) years. Majority (47.9%) of them were within class six to class ten. Most of the respondents (89%) were referred from the outpatient department and 11% were referred by inpatient department. Conduct disorder (27.3%), conversion disorder (13.2%), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (12.4%) and intellectual developmental disorder (9.1%) were common diagnoses of the respondents. It was found that 74.4% respondents attended up to one to five psychotherapy sessions and cognitive behavior therapy (38%) and behavior therapy (25.6%) were most commonly used psychotherapy. Though 60.3% of the respondents improved to certain extent in psychotherapy sessions, patient’s dropout rate was found as 55.4%. Bang J Psychiatry Dec 2014; 28(2): 53-57

Zahir Uddin

Papers

Translation of DASS 21 into Bangla and validation among medical students

Psychotherapy for child and adolescent with psychiatric disorder attending in National Institute of Mental Health, Dhaka