IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0249107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of COVID-19 on mental health and quality of life: Is there any effect? A cross-sectional study of the MENA region

Author

Listed:
  • Ayesha S Al Dhaheri
  • Mo’ath F Bataineh
  • Maysm N Mohamad
  • Abir Ajab
  • Amina Al Marzouqi
  • Amjad H Jarrar
  • Carla Habib-Mourad
  • Dima O Abu Jamous
  • Habiba I Ali
  • Haleama Al Sabbah
  • Hayder Hasan
  • Lily Stojanovska
  • Mona Hashim
  • Osama A Abd Elhameed
  • Reyad R Shaker Obaid
  • Samar ElFeky
  • Sheima T Saleh
  • Tareq M Osaili
  • Leila Cheikh Ismail

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major health crisis that has changed the life of millions globally. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of the pandemic on mental health and quality of life among the general population in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. A total of 6142 adults from eighteen countries within the MENA region completed an online questionnaire between May and June 2020. Psychological impact was assessed using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and the social and family support impact was assessed with questions from the Perceived Support Scale (PSS). The IES-R mean score was 29.3 (SD = 14.8), corresponding to mild stressful impact with 30.9% reporting severe psychological impact. Most participants (45%–62%) felt horrified, apprehensive, or helpless due to COVID-19. Furthermore, over 40% reported increased stress from work and financial matters. Higher IES-R scores were found among females, participants aged 26–35 years, those with lower educational level, and participants residing in the North Africa region (p

Suggested Citation

  • Ayesha S Al Dhaheri & Mo’ath F Bataineh & Maysm N Mohamad & Abir Ajab & Amina Al Marzouqi & Amjad H Jarrar & Carla Habib-Mourad & Dima O Abu Jamous & Habiba I Ali & Haleama Al Sabbah & Hayder Hasan & , 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 on mental health and quality of life: Is there any effect? A cross-sectional study of the MENA region," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-17, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0249107
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249107
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249107
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249107&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0249107?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zheng Feei Ma & Yutong Zhang & Xiaoqin Luo & Xinli Li & Yeshan Li & Shuchang Liu & Yingfei Zhang, 2020. "Increased stressful impact among general population in mainland China amid the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationwide cross-sectional study conducted after Wuhan city’s travel ban was lifted," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(8), pages 770-779, December.
    2. Mirna Fawaz & Ali Samaha, 2020. "COVID-19 quarantine: Post-traumatic stress symptomatology among Lebanese citizens," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(7), pages 666-674, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Nor Ba’yah Abdul Kadir & Rusyda Helma & Wan Nur Khairunnisa Ismail & Siti Jamiaah Abdul Jalil & Nurul-Azza Abdullah & Arena Che Kasim & Suzana Mohd. Hoesni & Mohd Rizal Abdul Manaf, 2022. "Sustaining the Quality of Life for University Employees with Obesity Using Mindfulness Activities and Work Engagement: A Quasi-Experimental Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-12, February.
    2. Felix Kwabena Donkor & Stergios-Aristoteles Mitoulis & Sotirios Argyroudis & Hassan Aboelkhair & Juan Antonio Ballesteros Canovas & Ahmad Bashir & Ginbert Permejo Cuaton & Samo Diatta & Maral Habibi &, 2022. "SDG Final Decade of Action: Resilient Pathways to Build Back Better from High-Impact Low-Probability (HILP) Events," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Kim Hua Tan & Poh Phui Chan & Nur-Ehsan Mohd Said, 2021. "Higher Education Students’ Online Instruction Perceptions: A Quality Virtual Learning Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-24, September.
    4. Olga Vl. Bitkina & Jaehyun Park, 2021. "Emotional State and Social Media Experience: A Pandemic Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Theingi Maung Maung & Timsi Jain & Jagannathan Madhanagopal & Sawri Rajan L. Rajagopal Naidu & Hnin Pwint Phyu & Win Myint Oo, 2022. "Impact of Aerobic and Strengthening Exercise on Quality of Life (QOL), Mental Health and Physical Performance of Elderly People Residing at Old Age Homes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-11, August.
    6. Wafa Alam & Nadia Farnaz & Farzana Manzoor & Sally Theobald & Sabina Faiz Rashid, 2023. "Perceptions of and Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccination among Urban Slum Dwellers in Dhaka, Bangladesh," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. TMGH-Global COVID-19 Collaborative, 2021. "Psychological Impacts and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among People under COVID-19 Quarantine and Isolation: A Global Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-10, May.
    2. Gao, Jian & Gu, Changgui & Yang, Huijie & Shen, Chuansheng, 2023. "Effects of the hierarchical lockdown control measure on the dynamic mechanism of individuals’ locomotor activities," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P1).
    3. Joshi Maharani Wibowo & Sugeng Hariadi, 2024. "Indonesia Sustainable Tourism Resilience in the COVID-19 Pandemic Era: Case Study of Five Indonesian Super- priority Destinations," Millennial Asia, , vol. 15(2), pages 236-258, June.
    4. Cristina Cambeses-Franco & Humberto José Urdaneta & Gumersindo Feijoo & María Teresa Moreira & Sara González-García, 2023. "Climate Change and Water Scarcity at the Focus of Environmental Impacts Associated with the COVID-19 Crisis in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-16, July.

    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:pone00:0249107. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.