Knowledge, Concerns, and Behaviors of Individuals During the First Week of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in Italy (original) (raw)
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Frontiers in Psychology, 2021
The Italian state adopted serious safety measures to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020. The lockdown was associated with negative psychological consequences in healthy populations, mostly in terms of anxiety, distress, depression, and even traumatic symptoms. This longitudinal study aimed at briefly documenting the psychological impact among an Italian sample, in terms of worry and its impact on psychological well-being levels, of the first wave of COVID-19, taking into account the changes in the lockdown scenario. A three-time follow-up survey was administered to 177 subjects (Female: 78%, Mage = 36.33), during (T0), at the end (T1), and 3 months after the end of the first lockdown (T2). Since the first wave of COVID-19, results showed a decrease in worry and the perception of virus diffusion’s controllability over time while psychological well-being increased. Furthermore, factors such as personality traits (neuroticism and agreeableness) and dysfunctional coping strat...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Background: Control measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic had a considerable impact on human daily life and lifestyles. Adherence to the recommended measures is influenced by knowledge and attitudes towards the disease. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the level of knowledge regarding COVID-19, the related control measures, and lifestyle behaviors adopted during the pandemic in a sample of elderly Italian people. Methods: A web-based questionnaire investigating socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of COVID-19, the related preventive measures, and lifestyle changes that occurred during the pandemic, were distributed to ≥65 years old people living in South Italy. Results: A satisfactory level of knowledge about COVID-19 and the related control measures has been found in the enrolled sample. However, a decrease in physical activity, as well as worsening sleeping and dietary habits, were found in roughly 60% of participants. Females were impacted greater by the...
Psychological Impact During the First Outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy
Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2020
The first outbreak of COVID-19 in Italy was confirmed on February 21, 2020. Subsequently, COVID-19 turned into a global pandemic, causing a global health emergency, triggering an unprecedented event in the modern era. This study assessed the immediate psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on emotional health and well-being. An ad hoc questionnaire was designed for online completion to expedite data collection during the COVID-19 outbreak. People were invited to participate in the study via social media and email from 4 to 18 March 2020. The entire survey comprised of 21 questions, covering a wide range of factors, such as demographics, disease knowledge, psychological impact, daily life activities, and psychological precautionary measures. The main outcome measure was psychological impact. This was measured based on intensity and prevalence of self-reported feelings of anxiety, fear, sadness, anger, and concern during the epidemic. In total, 10,025 respondents completed the online survey. Of these, about 73% were females, and 100% of the sample possessed good knowledge of the disease. The greatest prevalence of high psychological impact was reported in the <34 years' age group and in north Italy. Additionally, the psychological impact influenced important daily life activities, such as sexuality and nutrition. Our study provides information about the immediate psychological (emotional feelings) responses of Italy's general population to the COVID-19 epidemic. The survey covers several factors that can influence mental health; our results help gauge the psychological burden on the community and offer ways to minimize the impact.
Healthcare
The ongoing pandemic scenario, due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has had a considerable impact on public health all over the world. Italy was one of the most affected countries, as the first European full-blown outbreak occurred there. The exposure of the Italian health care workers to COVID-19 may be an important risk factor for psychological distress. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe worries and risk perception of being infected among Italian Health Care Workers (HCWs) during the first wave of the pandemic. In total, 2078 HCWs participated in a web survey (78.8% were females). The highest percentage of respondents were physicians (40.75%) and nurses (32.15%), followed by medical (18.00%), health care support (4.50%) and administrative (4.60%) staff. In a score range between 0 (not worried) and 4 (very worried), our results showed that participants declared that they were worried about the Coronavirus infection with a median score of 3 (IQR 2-3) a...
How Covid-19 changed economic and health-related worries in Italy
SN Business & Economics, 2022
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a huge challenge for governments all over the world, as well as for the World Health Organization (WHO) and the pharmaceutical companies in charge of creating the vaccines against the coronavirus. The success of all the efforts and the measures put in place to contain the spread of the contagion and to immunize people, however, also depends on people social compliance. In this study, we thus investigate how demographic and socioeconomic variables affected individuals' economic and health-related worries due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Using questions created by the WHO, we surveyed about 3000 Italians between May and June 2020. Our results show that individuals' socio-demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are engaged with distinct types of worries due to Covid-19, such as health-related worries, economic-related worries and worries connected to restrictions on movements. Our findings have implications for decision makers and policy makers in showing how important is to consider demographic and socioeconomic differences between individuals, to better understand how people are differently affected by different worries and which actions and policies may be more effective in protecting and supporting people especially the most vulnerable ones.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2021
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has caused not only significant physical health problems but also mental health disorders. Anxiety and fear appear to be the main psychological symptoms associated with COVID-19. The aim of this study was to investigate whether anxiety and fear related to COVID-19 are influenced by sociodemographics and whether specific conditions, such as positivity for COVID-19 or death among relatives and friends, can further enhance these symptoms. In this cross-sectional study, 697 Italians responded to an online survey assessing sociodemographic information, the presence/absence of positive cases, or deaths due to COVID-19 among relatives or acquaintances. The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) and Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCS-19S) were administered in order to assess the levels of anxiety and fear associated with COVID-19. The data were collected in November 2020. Anxiety and fear scores were positively correlated. Both male and female subjects wit...
In this study, we investigated the perception of risk and the worries about COVID-19 infection in both healthcare workers and general population in Italy. We studied the difference in risk perception in these two groups, and how this related to demographic variables and psychological factors such as stress, anxiety, and death anxiety. To this aim, we administered an online questionnaire about COVID-19 together with other questionnaires assessing the psychological condition of participants. First, we found that the exposition to infection risk, due to living area or job, increased the perceived stress and anxiety (i.e. medical staff in North Italy was more stressed and anxious respect to both medical- and non-medical participants from Center and South Italy). Then, we conducted hierarchical logistic regression models on our data to assess the response odds ratio relatively to each predictor on each dependent variable. We found that health workers reported higher risk perception, leve...
Internationl Journal of Enviromental Research and Public Health, 2020
Governments faced with the spread of COVID-19 pandemic are adopting strict and severe mitigation measures to influence people's behaviors. Public perception of health risk plays a key role in the adoption of these actions, in people's feelings, and in their daily habits. To support decision makers from international to local levels to face with future sanitary emergencies, this study aims at investigating Italian public perceptions of health risk. To this purpose, a questionnaire was designed and administered within the period of Italian COVID-19 lockdown and quarantine to almost 9000 citizens in Italy and abroad. The obtained results highlight a significative influence that mass media play on both the level of knowledge and the feelings of the respondents. The findings also point out future variations of some perceived behaviors consequent to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2022
The pandemic nature of COVID-19 has caused major changes in health, economy, and society globally. Albeit to a lesser extent, contingent access to shops and places to socialize the imposition of social distancing and the use of indoor masks is measures still in force today (more than a year after the start of the pandemic), with repercussions on economic, social, and psychological levels. The fear of contagion, in fact, has led us to be increasingly suspicious and to isolate ourselves from the remainder of the community. This has had repercussions on the perception of loneliness, with significant psychological consequences, such as the development of stress, anxiety, and, in extreme cases, depressive symptoms. Starting from these assumptions, this research was developed with the aim of deepening the perceptions that the participants have of their own mental health, loneliness, fear linked to contagion, and attitudes toward imposed social distancing. In particular, we wanted to analy...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
The COVID-19 pandemic and its protective measures had a tremendous effect on the general population’s mental health and deeply affected their lifestyle. The present study carried out a longitudinal analysis to evaluate the long-lasting psychological effects of the pandemic and its impact on the general population’s day-to-day routine. Three points in time were considered: the initial period of the lockdown (T1; n = 2766; March 2020), the final period of the lockdown (T2; n = 439; May 2020) and two years after the lockdown (T3; n = 268; July 2022). Frequency analyses were carried out to examine which behavioral changes were maintained following the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown; furthermore, a repeated measures ANOVA test was run to measure differences in depression, stress, and anxiety levels between the three periods considered; lastly, multivariable ordinal logistic regression analyses were carried out to examine which variables were associated with psychological distress more th...