Eighteen months into the COVID-19 pandemic: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms in Southeast Asia and the associated demographic factors.

ABSTRACT: Mental health has become a growing concern in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to determine the prevalence of mental health symptoms 18 months after the pandemic's declaration. Our cross-sectional study conducted among 18- to 65-year-old adults (N = 33,454) in October 2021 using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-21) found a high prevalence of severe to extremely severe anxiety (49%), depression (47%) and stress (36%) symptoms in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore. Multiple logistic regression showed that female and non-binary genders were associated with increased odds of severe/extremely severe symptoms of anxiety (female: aOR 1.44 [95% CI 1.37-1.52]; non-binary aOR 1.46 [1.16-1.84]), depression (female: aOR 1.39 [1.32-1.47]; non-binary aOR 1.42

SUBMITTER: Tay WWY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9387355 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature