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Informative note on the progress of results of the 'Survey on the mental health of Spaniards during the COVID-19 pandemic'
Madrid, 04 March 2021
Nota informativa
Mental health during the pandemic
23.4% of Spaniards acknowledge that they have been afraid of dying due to COVID-19
- According to the Mental Health survey carried out by the CIS, 35.1% acknowledge that “they have cried due to the situation we are in due to COVID-19”
- 41.9% claim to have suffered “sleep problems” since the beginning of the pandemic
- This is the first scientific study on Mental Health during the pandemic, based on a representative sample of the Spanish population with more than 3,000 interviews.
Madrid, March 4, 2021 . Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CIS has carried out a survey on the Mental Health of Spaniards. This survey reveals that 23.4% of the population has felt very or quite "afraid of dying due to the coronavirus" , 18.4% among men and 28.3% among women. By age, those who have been most afraid of dying from COVID-19 are people between 55 and 64 years old. (26.2%).
68.6% have felt a lot or quite a lot of “fear that a family member or loved one may die” and 72.3% acknowledge that they have felt a lot or a lot of worry that “a family member or loved one may become infected.”
35.1% admit that “they have cried because of this situation”, 16.9% of men and 52.8% of women. By age, the youngest, those between 18 and 24 years old, are the ones who most acknowledge that they have cried because of the pandemic situation (42.8%) .
He has also wondered if since the epidemic began they have felt bad for any reason. 41.9% "have had sleep problems" , 51.9% have acknowledged "feeling tired or with little energy" and 38.7% have had "headaches", among other problems such as tachycardia, dizziness or fainting.
Furthermore, in this last year 61.2% of Spaniards feel more worried about their health than before.
Mental health in minors
Changes have also been reflected in the behavior of children and adolescents. 52.2% of parents who have minor children (843 sample interviews) with whom they have lived during the pandemic have noticed changes in their children's way of being.
Of those who have noticed some change in the behavior of their cohabiting children or grandchildren, 72.7% say that their children or grandchildren have suffered “mood changes,” 78.6% “changes in living habits,” and 30.4% “changes in sleep”.
Academic collaboration
The Scientific Direction of this survey has been led by the UNED Professor, Bonifacio Sandín , specialized in Personality, evaluation and psychological treatments, and the psychiatrist, psychotherapist and professor of Psychopathology at the UNED, José Luis Pedreira .
Professor Pedreira has assured that the importance of this study lies “in the sample size that is representative and includes all age ranges.”
Pedreira has also highlighted “the feeling of fear of contagion and death in young adults, as well as crying several times a day” in this age range. And it has highlighted the increase in the prescription of psychotropic drugs (more than double those prescribed before the start of the pandemic), especially anxiolytics, antidepressants and sleep inducers, and with treatment durations exceeding 3 months.
Professor Sandín has agreed to highlight "the importance of the sample", which is representative of the population of the entire country, which is why it is the "first study that can provide longitudinal data." And he noted that with the pandemic, “sleep problems, the tendency to cry and worries about getting sick” have increased.
Sandín has also stressed that "the lower-middle class and those who consider themselves working class and working class suffer more mental disorders than those who identify themselves as upper class, with the middle-middle class placing themselves in an intermediate position."
The research by the Sociological Research Center is the first representative survey on the mental health of Spaniards carried out during the pandemic with a sample of 3,083 interviews carried out from February 19 to 25.
Esta información puede ser usada en parte o en su integridad sin necesidad de citar fuentes.
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