Factors associated with psychological distress, fear and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
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RESEARCH
Open Access
Factors associated with psychological distress, fear and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia Muhammad Aziz Rahman1,2,3* , Nazmul Hoque3,4, Sheikh M. Alif3,5 , Masudus Salehin1 , Sheikh Mohammed Shariful Islam6 , Biswajit Banik1 , Ahmed Sharif3,7,8, Nashrin Binte Nazim3,9, Farhana Sultana10 and Wendy Cross1
Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the personal, professional and social life of Australians with some people more impacted than others. Objectives: This study aimed to identify factors associated with psychological distress, fear and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among residents in Australia, including patients, frontline health and other essential service workers, and community members during June 2020. Psychological distress was assessed using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10); level of fear was assessed using the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S); and coping strategies were assessed using the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS). Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with the extent of psychological distress, level of fear and coping strategies while adjusting for potential confounders. Results: Among 587 participants, the majority (391, 73.2%) were 30–59 years old and female (363, 61.8%). More than half (349, 59.5%) were born outside Australia and two-third (418, 71.5%) completed at least a Bachelor’s degree. The majority (401, 71.5%) had a source of income, 243 (42.3%) self-identified as a frontline worker, and 335 (58.9%) reported financial impact due to COVID-19. Comorbidities such as pre-existing mental health conditions (AOR 3.13, 95% CIs 1.12–8.75), increased smoking (8.66, 1.08–69.1) and alcohol drinking (2.39, 1.05–5.47) over the last four weeks, high levels of fear (2.93, 1.83–4.67) and being female (1.74, 1.15–2.65) were associated with higher levels of psychological distress. Perceived distress due to change of employment status (4.14, 1.39–12.4), alcohol drinking (3.64, 1.54–8.58), providing care to known or suspected cases (3.64, 1.54–8.58), being female (1.56, 1.00–2.45), being 30–59 years old (2.29, 1.21–4.35) and having medium to high levels of psychological distress (2.90, 1.82–5.62) were associated with a higher level of fear; while healthcare service use in the last four weeks was associated with medium to high resilience. (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] 1 School of Health, Federation University Australia, 100 Clyde Road, Berwick, Victoria 3806, Australia 2 Australian Institute of Primary Care and Ageing, La Trobe University, Plenty Road and Kingsbury Drive, Melbourne, Victoria 3086, Australia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and repro
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