Seeing the unforeseen: an insight into kingdom-wide psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic

A.A. Hayat, A. Meny, Q.U. Hamdan, W. Sami, G. Albadrani

Department of Neuropsychiatry, Maternity and Children Hospital, Makkah Al Mukarma, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. w.mahmood@mu.edu.sa

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• Infectious Diseases
• Psychology

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the manuscript was to measure the levels of psychological stress, both acute and post-traumatic in the Saudi Arabian population during the situation resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was carried out among people of Saudi Arabia (SA) to measure levels of psychological stress, both acute and post-traumatic during the COVID-19 outbreak. Data were collected from five regions in SA using validated questionnaires including Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) and Impact of Events Scale (IES) through social media channels from March 2021 to January 2022.

RESULTS: The total number of participants was 1,560. Most of participants (60.2%) were females. Around 53.6% of the sample were aged between 16-24 years old. The majority of participants (87.3%) was Saudi national. About 82% of participants was from Eastern (40.1%) and Western (42.2%) regions, followed by those from Central, Northern, and Southern. More than 60% of them had a college degree or above. The mean K 10 score was 28.33 for the sample which was above the cut-off of 25, implying significant levels of acute stress in the sample. IES values showed a mean of 28.19, well above the cut-off of significant Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms (24). K-10 and IES scores revealed that about 76.7% of the participants suffered from significant acute stress and 59.1% suffered from symptoms of PTSD during the COVID-19 era.

CONCLUSIONS: The nationwide study emphasizes the fact that the Saudi population was found to be extremely stressed and traumatized during the COVID-19 pandemic era and calls for effective

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