Internet searches for "insomnia" and "suicide" mediated by stay-at-home behaviors in 45 countries during the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

This study aimed to investigate (1) the mental health impacts (i.e., insomnia and suicide ideas) of the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) the mediation effects of stay-at-home levels on those impacts.

Methods

This study investigated monthly national COVID-19 deaths, stay-at-home levels, and internet searches for words for "insomnia" and "suicide" across 45 countries during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021). We used the changes of internet search volumes for "insomnia" and "suicide" (from the Google Trends database) to represent the mental health impacts, and the time of cell phone activity at the residence (from Google Location History) to estimate the stay-at-home effects. We computed the proportion mediated (PM) caused by stay

SUBMITTER: Lin SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9815859 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature