Prevalence and Correlates of Depression and Anxiety in Quarantined Population During the COVID-19 Outbreak in Central Ethiopia

Abstract

\n Background: Since the declaration of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak as a pandemic, different countries across the globe have been using quarantine to decrease the transmission of the disease and subsequently to minimize morbidity and associated mortality. Evidence suggests that quarantine might have a wide-ranging, substantial, and long-lasting negative psychological impact especially when the necessary preventive measures are not taken. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no prior studies that determined the prevalence and correlate of depression and anxiety in quarantined populations during the COVID-19 outbreak in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia.Methods: A community-based cross-section study was conducted among individuals under quarantine from June 5 to July 5, 2020. After obtaining verbal consent, data was collected face to face using the structured and self-administered hospital anxiety and depression scale instrument. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used to assess depression and anxiety. Binary logistic regression analysis (multivariate analysis) was used to identify the potential determinants of depression and anxiety.Result: A total of 297 participants were included in the study which makes the response rate 90.8%. The prevalence of anxiety, depression, and co-morbid anxiety and depression were 21.5%, 70.7%, and 15.8% respectively. In our multivariable analyses, stressful life events (AOR 2.61, 95%CI (1.46, 4.67)), spent time on sleeping (AOR 1.97, 95% CI (1.08, 3.62)), and believing that COVID-19 could be prevented by wearing a glove (AOR 0.30, 95% CI (0.11, 0.81)) showed a statistically significant association with anxiety, whereas being married (AOR 2.67, 95% CI (1.37, 5.22)), had stressful life event in the last six months (AOR 1.44, 95% CI (1.44, 5.25)) and spending of time by sleeping during the quarantine (AOR 1.97, 95% CI (1.42, 6.19)) predicted depression.Conclusion: The current study result indicated that a considerable proportion of individuals who were under quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic have experienced psychological disturbances, such as anxiety and depression. The presence of stressful life events, time spent on sleeping, and believing that COVID-19 could be prevented by wearing masks were found to be significant predictors of depression or anxiety among the participants. The results suggest that attention needs to be given to mitigate mental health problems in the quarantined population during the COVID-19 outbreak.