- Title
- Psychological distress, fear and coping among Malaysians during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Creator
- Moni, Ahmed; Abdullah, Shalimar; Salehin, Masudus; Cross, Wendy; Rahman, Muhammad Aziz
- Date
- 2021
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/180015
- Identifier
- vital:15699
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257304
- Identifier
- ISBN:1932-6203 (ISSN)
- Abstract
- Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has enormously affected the psychological well-being, social and working life of millions of people across the world. This study aimed to investigate the psychological distress, fear and coping strategies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated factors among Malaysian residents. Methods Participants were invited to an online cross-sectional survey from Aug-Sep 2020. The study assessed psychological distress using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, level of fear using the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, and coping strategies using the Brief Resilient Coping Scale. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to adjust for potential confounders. Results The mean age (±SD) of the participants (N = 720) was 31.7 (±11.5) years, and most of them were females (67.1%). Half of the participants had an income source, while 216 (30%) identified themselves as frontline health or essential service workers. People whose financial situation was impacted due to COVID-19 (AOR 2.16, 95% CIs 1.54 3.03), people who drank alcohol in the last four weeks (3.43, 1.45 8.10), people who were a patient (2.02, 1.39 2.93), and had higher levels of fear of COVID-19 (2.55, 1.70 3.80) were more likely to have higher levels of psychological distress. Participants who self-isolated due to exposure to COVID-19 (3.12, 1.04 9.32) and who had moderate to very high levels of psychological distress (2.56, 1.71 3.83) had higher levels of fear. Participants who provided care to a family member/patient with a suspected case of COVID-19 were more likely to be moderately to highly resilient compared to those who did not. Conclusion Vulnerable groups of individuals such as patients and those impacted financially during COVID-19 should be supported for their mental wellbeing. Behavioural interventions should be targeted to reduce the impact of alcohol drinking during such crisis period. © 2021 Public Library of Science. All rights reserved. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Masudus Salehin, Wendy Cross, Muhammad Aziz Rahman” is provided in this record**
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science
- Relation
- PLoS ONE Vol. 16, no. 9 (2021), p.
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Rights
- Copyright © 2021 Bahar Moni et al.
- Rights
- Open Access
- Subject
- MD Multidisciplinary
- Full Text
- Reviewed
- Hits: 1095
- Visitors: 1045
- Downloads: 111
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Published version | 835 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |