Background: COVID-19 has diversified problems such as physical health, mental health, psychosocial and economic impact on people all over the world. A report from Johns Hopkins University revealed that many millions of people have been infected and millions of them lost their lives due to the virus.
Purpose: To assess the implementation of COVID-19 prevention mechanisms and to describe the impact of COVID-19 on people’s mental health in Asella town.
Methods: Descriptive survey research design was used. Two hundred and eleven randomly selected participants involved for the study. Data gathered by using PHQ-9 depressive symptom and STAI-s anxiety scales. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA with post hoc comparison.
Results: The finding revealed that 14 and 5.2% of the participants reported sometimes and occasionally wearing a mask regardless of the presence or absence of symptom. About 6.2% and 10.9% of the participants reported occasionally and never for the item avoidance of sharing utensils during meals. Half (49.3%) and 37% of the participants reported somewhat worried and very worried, respectively for concern about other family members getting COVID-19 infection. About 8.5% (M=22.64, SD=1.93) and 10 (4.7%, M=16, SD=1.42) of the participants qualify in the criteria of severe depressive symptoms and moderate-severe depressive symptoms, respectively. Conversely, 11.84% (M=52.76, SD=3.9) qualify in the criterion for severe anxiety. The independent sample t-test result revealed that there was statistically significant difference among males and females for anxiety mean score. However, there was no statistically significant difference among males and females for depressive symptom mean score. Regarding mental health across different age categories, the ANOVA with post hoc analysis revealed that there was statistically significant difference for state anxiety mean score among younger and older participants but not for depressive symptom mean score.
Conclusion: Generally, there is gap in the prevention of COVID-19. In addition, there is an elevated level of depressive and anxiety symptoms during the outbreak of COVID-19 that needs urgent psychological intervention.



中文翻译：

---

COVID-19疫情对阿塞拉镇居民心理健康的影响


背景： COVID-19 对全世界人民造成身体健康、心理健康、心理社会和经济影响等多种问题。约翰·霍普金斯大学的一份报告显示，数百万人已被感染，数百万人因该病毒而丧生。

目的：评估 COVID-19 预防机制的实施情况并描述 COVID-19 对阿塞拉镇人们心理健康的影响。

方法：采用描述性调查研究设计。随机挑选的 211 名参与者参与了这项研究。使用 PHQ-9 抑郁症状和 STAI-s 焦虑量表收集的数据。使用描述性统计、独立样本t检验和事后比较的单向方差分析对数据进行分析。

结果：调查结果显示，无论有无症状，分别有 14% 和 5.2% 的参与者报告有时或偶尔戴口罩。约6.2%和10.9%的参与者表示偶尔或从未在用餐时避免共用餐具。一半 (49.3%) 和 37% 的参与者分别表示有些担心和非常担心，担心其他家庭成员感染 COVID-19。大约8.5%（M=22.64，SD=1.93）和10（4.7%，M=16，SD=1.42）的参与者分别符合重度抑郁症状和中重度抑郁症状的标准。相反，11.84%（M=52.76，SD=3.9）符合严重焦虑标准。独立样本t检验结果显示，男性和女性的焦虑平均分存在统计学差异。然而，男性和女性的抑郁症状平均评分没有统计学上的显着差异。关于不同年龄组的心理健康状况，事后分析的方差分析显示，年轻和年长参与者的状态焦虑平均得分存在统计学显着差异，但抑郁症状平均得分没有显着差异。

结论：总体而言，COVID-19 的预防存在差距。此外，在COVID-19爆发期间，抑郁和焦虑症状升高，需要紧急心理干预。