IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0258213.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experiences of coping with the first wave of COVID-19 epidemic in Philadelphia, PA: Mixed methods analysis of a cross-sectional survey of worries and symptoms of mood disorders

Author

Listed:
  • Igor Burstyn
  • Tran B Huynh

Abstract

Our objective was to describe how residents of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, coped psychologically with the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. In a cross-sectional design, we aimed to estimate the rates and correlates of anxiety and depression, examine how specific worries correlated with general anxiety and depression, and synthesize themes of “the most difficult experiences” shared by the respondents. We collected data through an on-line survey in a convenience sample of 1,293 adult residents of Philadelphia, PA between April 17 and July 3, 2020, inquiring about symptoms of anxiety and depression (via the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), specific worries, open-ended narratives of “the most difficult experiences” (coded into themes), demographics, perceived sources of support, and general health. Anxiety was evident among 30 to 40% of participants and depression—about 10%. Factor analysis revealed two distinct, yet inter-related clusters of specific worries related to mood disorders: concern about “hardships” and “fear of infection”. Regression analyses revealed that anxiety, depression, and fear of infection, but not concern about hardships, worsened over the course of the epidemic. “The most difficult experiences” characterized by loss of income, poor health of self or others, uncertainty, death of a relative or a friend, and struggle accessing food were each associated with some of the measures of worries and mood disorders. Respondents who believed they could rely on support of close personal network fared better psychologically than those who reported relying primarily on government and social services organizations. Thematic analysis revealed complex perceptions of the pandemic by the participants, giving clues to both positive and negative experiences that may have affected how they coped. Despite concerns about external validity, our observations are concordant with emerging evidence of psychological toll of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures employed to mitigate risk of infection.

Suggested Citation

  • Igor Burstyn & Tran B Huynh, 2021. "Experiences of coping with the first wave of COVID-19 epidemic in Philadelphia, PA: Mixed methods analysis of a cross-sectional survey of worries and symptoms of mood disorders," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(10), pages 1-28, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0258213
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258213
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258213&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0258213?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Casey B. Mulligan, 2020. "Deaths of Despair and the Incidence of Excess Mortality in 2020," Working Papers 2020-185, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    2. Casey B. Mulligan, 2020. "Deaths of Despair and the Incidence of Excess Mortality in 2020," NBER Working Papers 28303, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Brandily, Paul & Brébion, Clément & Briole, Simon & Khoury, Laura, 2021. "A poorly understood disease? The impact of COVID-19 on the income gradient in mortality over the course of the pandemic," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    2. Casey B. Mulligan & Robert D. Arnott, 2022. "Non-Covid Excess Deaths, 2020-21: Collateral Damage of Policy Choices?," NBER Working Papers 30104, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2021. "Excess Deaths in the United States During the First Year of COVID-19," NBER Working Papers 29503, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Virat Agrawal & Jonathan H. Cantor & Neeraj Sood & Christopher M. Whaley, 2021. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Policy Responses on Excess Mortality," NBER Working Papers 28930, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Glover, Andrew & Heathcote, Jonathan & Krueger, Dirk & Ríos-Rull, José-Víctor, 2023. "Health versus wealth: On the distributional effects of controlling a pandemic," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 34-59.
    6. Sakouvogui Kekoura & Guilavogui Mama Genevieve, 2022. "How are the United States Banks faring during the COVID-19 Pandemic? Evidence of Economic Efficiency Measures," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 11-29, January.
    7. Hania Rahimi-Ardabili & Xiaoqi Feng & Phi-Yen Nguyen & Thomas Astell-Burt, 2022. "Have Deaths of Despair Risen during the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-12, October.
    8. David J. Hebert & Michael D. Curry, 2022. "Optimal lockdowns," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 193(3), pages 263-274, December.
    9. Paul Brandily & Clément Brébion & Simon Briole & Laura Khoury, 2021. "A Poorly Understood Disease? The Evolution of the Income Gradient in Excess Mortality Due to COVID-19 within Urban Areas," Working Papers halshs-03154551, HAL.
    10. Clara E. Jace & Christos A. Makridis, 2021. "Does marriage protect mental health? Evidence from the COVID‐19 pandemic," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2499-2515, November.
    11. Angus Deaton, 2022. "The great divide: education, despair, and death," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 57(4), pages 161-168, October.
    12. Aizenman, Joshua & Cukierman, Alex & Jinjarak, Yothin & Nair-Desai, Sameer & Xin, Weining, 2022. "Gaps between official and excess Covid-19 mortality measures: The effects of institutional quality and vaccinations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    13. Audrey Redford & Angela K. Dills, 2021. "The political economy of drug and alcohol regulation during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1175-1209, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:plo:pone00:0258213. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.