The impact of Covid-19 on mental health amongst Indians was the highest in the world.
A study conducted in 204 countries and published in The Lancet to estimate the impact of Covid-19 on mental health found that the two ailments, major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder increased 35% each amongst Indians; while globally it rose by 28% and 26%, respectively.
More women than men and more younger people than seniors were affected. The study was conducted by the University of Queensland, Australia and IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation), an independent global health research center at the University of Washington.
It was also found that countries with high Covid-19 infection rates and major restrictions in the movement of people because of lockdowns and school closures had the greatest increases in mental health disorders.
Poor mental balance is an impedance to performance and should be dealt on priority.
In addition to India, the incidence of depression and anxiety rose in countries such as the US (33.7% and 28.4%, respectively), the UK (27.8% and 28.8%), France (33.2% and 32.7%) and Brazil (29% and 25.4%).
China registered a relatively low increase of 8.9% in depressive disorders and 11.2% in anxiety.
Poor mental balance is an impedance to performance and is a pandemic to be dealt with in the years to come.
Pandemic has worsened the existing inequalities, especially in India where women faced an increase in domestic violence.
Estimates indicate that without the pandemic, there would have been 193 million cases of major depressive disorder (2,471 cases per1,00,000 population) globally in 2020. The Lancet study said, that the analysis shows there were 246 million cases (3,153 per 1,00,000), an increase of 28% (an additional 53 million cases).
The Covid-19 pandemic will end up give rise to many pandemics, one of them being mental health, and sadly, the infrastructure to deal with it is poor not only in India but in the rest of the world.
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Dr Ajay Sati is an Occupational Health physician who prefers to describe himself as an Occupationist, to denote, ‘an expert in diseases and other concerns of occupations’. Dr Sati has managed health and wellness programs in industries he worked, like the atomic energy, and energy (oil & gas) in India and overseas. He was involved in many greenfield and brownfield projects providing inputs from health point of view. Known for SOPs and protocols, he is currently involved with an energy MNC in designing protocols to support employees during the covid pandemic, and protocols to safely reopen offices and plants.
