Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and its Coping: A One-year Follow-up Study from India

Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and its Coping: A One-year Follow-up Study from India

"Objective: The coronavirus disease pandemic has been posing as a serious health hazard with high mortality risks along with global disastrous economic consequences. A pervasive and long-term impact of the pandemic on mental health has been expected and reported in literature. It is vital to study its nature and whether there has been any change in the impact perception and coping of people toward the COVID pandemic after a year it started. Methods: The study was conducted in two phases, with a gap of one year in between the phases. The present study produced the findings of second phase, which was basically a follow-up after one year. Totally, 100 consenting participants of both sex from the pool of first phase (n = 625) who agreed for follow-up assessment were re-assessed to see the changes in psychological impact of COVID pandemic and their coping using the Psychological Impact and Coping in COVID Pandemic Questionnaire. Results: The psychological coping of the participants significantly lowered from the first phase to the second phase (22.09±3.44 vs. 20.02±3.37, t = 3.75, p < 0.001). Under domain category, psychological coping showed significant lowering in male student participants (21.67±3.50 vs. 19.09±3.35, t = 3.001, p < 0.01) and in female student participants (22.37±3.43 vs. 20.26±3.43, t = 3.2, p < 0.01) from the first to the second phase. Young-aged adults had significantly lowered in psychological coping (22.50±3.15 vs. 19.26±3.72, t = 4.4 p < 0.001) from the first to the second phase. No change in psychological impact on the participants existed, across first to second phase, in the domain for age and sex. Conclusion: The psychological impact of the pandemic was reduced but not conclusively after a year of the COVID pandemic, and the coping was poorer after a year, especially in young adults. The continuation of the pandemic with a persistent increase in infection and mortality numbers and uncertainty over treatment and vaccination is to maintain the phenomenon and needs to be controlled to limit secondary long-term mental issues in the population."