Short-Term Changes in Behaviors Resulting from COVID-19-Related Social Isolation and Their Influences on Mental Health i
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Short‑Term Changes in Behaviors Resulting from COVID‑19‑Related Social Isolation and Their Influences on Mental Health in Ghana Nestor Asiamah1 · Frank Frimpong Opuni2 · Edwin Mends‑Brew3 · Samuel Worlanyo Mensah4 · Henry Kofi Mensah5 · Fidelis Quansah6 Received: 3 May 2020 / Accepted: 1 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This study assessed the behavioral outcomes of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) social distancing protocols and their influences on mental health. An online survey hosted by Survey Monkey was utilized to collect data from residents of three Ghanaian cities of Accra, Kumasi and Tamale. A total of 621 surveys were analyzed, with a sensitivity analysis utilized to select covariates for the regression model. The average age of participants was about 36 years. Findings indicate that reduced physical activity time and a change in sexual activity and smoking frequency are some short-term changes in behavior resulting from social isolation during the lockdown. An increase in sedentary behavior had a negative influence on mental health. For the most part, changes in behaviors in the short-term were associated with lower mental health scores. The study implied that COVID-19 social distancing measures should be implemented alongside public education for discouraging unhealthy changes in behaviors. Keywords COVID-19 · Behavior · Health behavior · Social isolation · Mental health · Ghana
Introduction Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel virus that was first detected in Wuhan City, China (Lewnard and Lo 2020; Lin et al. 2020). Over a period of 6 h (6)
Continuous variable None (1); 1–30 min (2); 30–59 min (3); 1–3 h (4); 4–6 h (5); > 6 h (6) Continuous variable None (1); 1–30 min (2); 30–59 min (3); 1–3 h (4); 4–6 h (5); > 6 h (6)
Type
Community Mental Health Journal
Community Mental Health Journal
somewhat agree—3; agree—4; and strongly agree—5) from Lukat et al. (2016). This tool is a unidimensional scale that produced satisfactory psychometric properties (including a Cronbach’s α coefficient = 0.93) on a sample representing the general population. It was preferred to other mental health measures because it has been properly validated for the general population and is the most holistic mental health measure (Lukat et al. 2016). In the current study, it produced a satisfactory Cronbach’s α coefficient of 0.82. Scores on the mental health measure were generated in harmony with the Lukat and colleagues; items were ‘parceled’ by adding them up. Appendix Table 5 shows items of the mental health measure used.
Data Collection and Ethical Steps This study received ethical clearance from an institutional ethics review committee (# 0012020-ACE) after the research protocol and ethical statement were reviewed by the committee. In agreement with best practices, we ensured that the first question of the survey presented the ethical statement (Merolli et al. 2014; Balhara and Verma 2014), which means that only individuals who agreed to partic
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