IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0247705.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of anxiety and socioeconomic factors on mental health in the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population in Japan: A web-based survey

Author

Listed:
  • Miwako Nagasu
  • Kaori Muto
  • Isamu Yamamoto

Abstract

Owing to the rapid spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic worldwide, individuals experience considerable psychological distress daily. The present study aimed to clarify the prevalence of psychological distress and determine the population most affected by risk factors such as the pandemic, socioeconomic status (SES), and lifestyle-related factors causing psychological distress in the early phases of the pandemic in Japan. This study was conducted via a web-based survey using quota sampling to ensure representativeness of the Japanese population aged 20–64 years. A cross-sectional study of 11,342 participants (5,734 males and 5,608 females) was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire that included the Japanese version of the Kessler 6 Psychological Distress Scale (K6) and questions related to the pandemic, SES, and lifestyle. The prevalence of psychological distress, represented by a K6 score of 5 or more, was 50.3% among males and 52.6% among females. Both males and females with annual household incomes less than 2 million yen and males aged in their twenties had significantly higher K6 scores than those with annual household incomes above 2 million yen and males aged over 30 years. Binary logistic regression analyses found pandemic-related factors such as medical history, inability to undergo clinical tests immediately, having trouble in daily life, unavailability of groceries, new work style, and vague anxiety; SES-related factors such as lesser income; and lifestyle-related factors such as insufficient rest, sleep, and nutritious meals to be significantly related to psychological distress. Psychological distress was more prevalent among people with low income and in younger generations than among other groups. There is an urgent need to provide financial, medical, and social support to those affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Miwako Nagasu & Kaori Muto & Isamu Yamamoto, 2021. "Impacts of anxiety and socioeconomic factors on mental health in the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population in Japan: A web-based survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-19, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0247705
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247705
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247705
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247705&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0247705?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michihito Ando & Masato Furuichi, 2022. "The association of COVID-19 employment shocks with suicide and safety net use: An early-stage investigation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-26, March.
    2. Zamanzadeh, Akbar & Cavoli, Tony & Ghasemi, Matina & Rokni, Ladan, 2024. "The effect of actual and expected income shocks on mental wellbeing: Evidence from three East Asian countries during COVID-19," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Izumi Matsudaira & Yuji Takano & Ryo Yamaguchi & Yasuyuki Taki, 2021. "Core belief disruption amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Japanese adults," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-7, December.
    4. Hilal Altundal Duru & Serpil Yılmaz & Zeliha Yaman & Münevver Boğahan & Mualla Yılmaz, 2023. "Individuals’ Coping Styles and Levels of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Study," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440221, January.
    5. Takashi Oshio & Hiromi Kimura & Toshimi Nishizaki & Susumu Kuwahara, 2022. "At Which Area Level Does COVID-19 Infection Matter Most for an Individual’s Self-Rated Health? A Multilevel Fixed-Effects Model Analysis in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-11, July.
    6. Hafsah Saeed & Ardalan Eslami & Najah T. Nassif & Ann M. Simpson & Sara Lal, 2022. "Anxiety Linked to COVID-19: A Systematic Review Comparing Anxiety Rates in Different Populations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-26, February.
    7. Mitsuru Mori & Toshiaki Seko & Shunichi Ogawa, 2022. "Association of Social Capital and Locus of Control with Perceived Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-9, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0247705. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.