IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i18p6827-d415711.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Subjective Deterioration of Physical and Psychological Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan: Their Association with the Adoption of Protective Behaviors and Mental Health Problems

Author

Listed:
  • Peng-Wei Wang

    (Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan
    Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan)

  • Nai-Ying Ko

    (Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan)

  • Yu-Ping Chang

    (School of Nursing, The State University of New York, University at Buffalo, New York, NY 14214-3079, USA)

  • Chia-Fen Wu

    (Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan)

  • Wei-Hsin Lu

    (Department of Psychiatry, Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, Chia-Yi City 60002, Taiwan)

  • Cheng-Fang Yen

    (Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan
    Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung 80708, Taiwan)

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the proportion of individuals who reported the deterioration of physical and psychological health during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Taiwan. Moreover, the related factors of deterioration of physical and psychological health and the association between deterioration of health and adoption of protective behavior against COVID-19 and mental health problems were also examined. We recruited participants via a Facebook advertisement. We determined the subjective physical and psychological health states, cognitive and affective construct of health belief, perceived social support, mental health problems, adoption of protective behavior and demographic characteristics among 1954 respondents (1305 women and 649 men; mean age: 37.9 years with standard deviation 10.8 years). In total, 13.2% and 19.3% of respondents reported deteriorated physical and psychological health during the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. Participants with higher perceived harm from COVID-19 compared with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) were more likely to report the subjective deterioration of physical and psychological health, whereas respondents who were older and perceived a higher level of social support were less likely to report a deterioration of physical and psychological health. The subjective deterioration of psychological health was significantly associated with avoiding crowded places and wearing a mask. Both subjective deteriorations of physical and psychological health positively related to general anxiety.

Suggested Citation

  • Peng-Wei Wang & Nai-Ying Ko & Yu-Ping Chang & Chia-Fen Wu & Wei-Hsin Lu & Cheng-Fang Yen, 2020. "Subjective Deterioration of Physical and Psychological Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taiwan: Their Association with the Adoption of Protective Behaviors and Mental Health Problems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-18, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:18:p:6827-:d:415711
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6827/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6827/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cuiyan Wang & Riyu Pan & Xiaoyang Wan & Yilin Tan & Linkang Xu & Cyrus S. Ho & Roger C. Ho, 2020. "Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Robert Stanton & Quyen G. To & Saman Khalesi & Susan L. Williams & Stephanie J. Alley & Tanya L. Thwaite & Andrew S. Fenning & Corneel Vandelanotte, 2020. "Depression, Anxiety and Stress during COVID-19: Associations with Changes in Physical Activity, Sleep, Tobacco and Alcohol Use in Australian Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-13, June.
    3. Yingfei Zhang & Zheng Feei Ma, 2020. "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Quality of Life among Local Residents in Liaoning Province, China: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-12, March.
    4. Dian-Jeng Li & Nai-Ying Ko & Yi-Lung Chen & Peng-Wei Wang & Yu-Ping Chang & Cheng-Fang Yen & Wei-Hsin Lu, 2020. "COVID-19-Related Factors Associated with Sleep Disturbance and Suicidal Thoughts among the Taiwanese Public: A Facebook Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-12, June.
    5. Nai-Ying Ko & Wei-Hsin Lu & Yi-Lung Chen & Dian-Jeng Li & Yu-Ping Chang & Chia-Fen Wu & Peng-Wei Wang & Cheng-Fang Yen, 2020. "Changes in Sex Life among People in Taiwan during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Roles of Risk Perception, General Anxiety, and Demographic Characteristics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-15, August.
    6. Julio Torales & Marcelo O’Higgins & João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia & Antonio Ventriglio, 2020. "The outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus and its impact on global mental health," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(4), pages 317-320, June.
    7. Ioulia Solomou & Fofi Constantinidou, 2020. "Prevalence and Predictors of Anxiety and Depression Symptoms during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Compliance with Precautionary Measures: Age and Sex Matter," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-19, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cristina Lázaro-Pérez & José Ángel Martínez-López & José Gómez-Galán & María del Mar Fernández-Martínez, 2020. "COVID-19 Pandemic and Death Anxiety in Security Forces in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-16, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Edmond Pui Hang Choi & Bryant Pui Hung Hui & Eric Yuk Fai Wan & Jojo Yan Yan Kwok & Tiffany Hei Lam Tam & Chanchan Wu, 2021. "COVID-19 and Health-Related Quality of Life: A Community-Based Online Survey in Hong Kong," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-12, March.
    2. Ilaria Cataldo & Dora Novotny & Alessandro Carollo & Gianluca Esposito, 2023. "Mental Health in the Post-Lockdown Scenario: A Scientometric Investigation of the Main Thematic Trends of Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(13), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Maja Milošević Marković & Milan B. Latas & Srđan Milovanović & Sanja Totić Poznanović & Miloš M. Lazarević & Milica Jakšić Karišik & Jana Đorđević & Zoran Mandinić & Svetlana Jovanović, 2022. "Mental Health and Quality of Life among Dental Students during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-12, October.
    4. Krzysztof Rząsa & Mateusz Ciski, 2022. "Influence of the Demographic, Social, and Environmental Factors on the COVID-19 Pandemic—Analysis of the Local Variations Using Geographically Weighted Regression," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-26, September.
    5. Federica Andrei & Giacomo Mancini & Francesca Agostini & Maria Stella Epifanio & Marco Andrea Piombo & Martina Riolo & Vittoria Spicuzza & Erica Neri & Rosa Lo Baido & Sabina La Grutta & Elena Trombin, 2022. "Quality of Life and Job Loss during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediation by Hopelessness and Moderation by Trait Emotional Intelligence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-12, February.
    6. Sunhee Kim & Seoyong Kim, 2021. "Who Is Suffering from the “Corona Blues”? An Analysis of the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Depression and Its Implications for Health Policy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-21, November.
    7. Jerónimo J Gonzalez-Bernal & Paula Rodríguez-Fernández & Mirian Santamaría-Peláez & Josefa González-Santos & Benito León-del-Barco & Luis A. Minguez & Raúl Soto-Cámara, 2021. "Life Satisfaction during Forced Social Distancing and Home Confinement Derived from the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-10, February.
    8. Hilal Altundal Duru & Serpil Yılmaz & Zeliha Yaman & Münevver Boğahan & Mualla Yılmaz, 2023. "Individuals’ Coping Styles and Levels of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Study," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440221, January.
    9. Hui-Wen Tseng & Ching-Shu Tsai & Yu-Min Chen & Ray C. Hsiao & Fan-Hao Chou & Cheng-Fang Yen, 2021. "Poor Mental Health in Caregivers of Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Its Relationships with Caregivers’ Difficulties in Managing the Children’s Behaviors and Worsened Psychol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-16, September.
    10. Ankica Kosic & Tamara Džamonja Ignjatović & Nebojša Petrović, 2021. "A Cross-Cultural Study of Distress during COVID-19 Pandemic: Some Protective and Risk Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-15, July.
    11. Christian M. Hafner, 2020. "The Spread of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Time and Space," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-13, May.
    12. Mateusz Ciski & Krzysztof Rząsa, 2023. "Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression in the Investigation of Local COVID-19 Anomalies Based on Population Age Structure in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-23, May.
    13. Yang Yang & Keqiao Liu & Siqi Li & Man Shu, 2020. "Social Media Activities, Emotion Regulation Strategies, and Their Interactions on People’s Mental Health in COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-16, December.
    14. Alessandro Germani & Livia Buratta & Elisa Delvecchio & Claudia Mazzeschi, 2020. "Emerging Adults and COVID-19: The Role of Individualism-Collectivism on Perceived Risks and Psychological Maladjustment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-15, May.
    15. Joanna Baj-Korpak & Kamil Zaworski & Ewa Szymczuk & Andrei Shpakou, 2022. "Physical Activity and Mental Health of Medical Students from Poland and Belarus-Countries with Different Restrictive Approaches during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-15, October.
    16. Gregory Knell & Michael C. Robertson & Erin E. Dooley & Katie Burford & Karla S. Mendez, 2020. "Health Behavior Changes During COVID-19 Pandemic and Subsequent “Stay-at-Home” Orders," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-16, August.
    17. Marwah Ahmed Behisi & Hussain M. Altaweel & Reham F. Gassas & Mansour Aldehaiman & Abdulmajeed A. Alkhamees, 2021. "COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health Status of Saudi Citizens Living Abroad," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-17, July.
    18. Dana Alonzo & Marciana Popescu, 2022. "A qualitative examination of the mental health impact of Covid-19 in marginalized communities in Guatemala: The Covid Care Calls survey," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 68(7), pages 1435-1444, November.
    19. Martin Sanchez-Gomez & Gabriele Giorgi & Georgia Libera Finstad & Flavio Urbini & Giulia Foti & Nicola Mucci & Salvatore Zaffina & José M. León-Perez, 2021. "COVID-19 Pandemic as a Traumatic Event and Its Associations with Fear and Mental Health: A Cognitive-Activation Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-14, July.
    20. Lara Guedes de Pinho & Francisco Sampaio & Carlos Sequeira & Laetitia Teixeira & César Fonseca & Manuel José Lopes, 2021. "Portuguese Nurses’ Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Reduction Strategies during the COVID-19 Outbreak," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-11, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:18:p:6827-:d:415711. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.