Social Mental Health during COVID-19 Pandemic in Iran: A cross-sectional study among the general population of Razavi Khorasan province, Iran

The potential impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic on social mental health has become a great concern and the current situation can cause different mental disorders. According to the importance of mental health, we performed this study to evaluate the mental health status of the general population of Iran in Razavi Khorasan province.

The online survey was conducted and made available for the general population of Razavi Khorasan through the snowball sampling technique within a week. the demographic information, contact history with COVID-19, and physical symptoms history of COVID-19 were collected by the survey. To maintain the population's mental health status, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were used. Filling the online survey by a maximum of two members of a family was considered to reduce the risk of bias.

Finally, 461 responders from Razavi Khorasan province were included in this study. In total, 41.8% of responders investigated the depression symptoms, 32.1% were in anxiety mood and 34.5% had stress symptoms. The ratio of men to women was approximately 1:2. Most responders were in the of 30-40 years and the most frequent marital status was being single. Families with 3-5 members were organized the 81.5% of responders. Near one-third of the studied population was in bachelor as educational status.

According to our study paying attention to the general population’s mental health status is important during the COVID-19 pandemic and conducting protocols to prevent or reduce the risk of mental disorders that can be caused by the current situation.