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Multicenter Study
. 2020 Nov 5;15(11):e0240204.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240204. eCollection 2020.

Psychological consequences of COVID-19 home confinement: The ECLB-COVID19 multicenter study

Achraf Ammar  1   2 , Patrick Mueller  3   4 , Khaled Trabelsi  5   6 , Hamdi Chtourou  5   7 , Omar Boukhris  5   7 , Liwa Masmoudi  5 , Bassem Bouaziz  8 , Michael Brach  9 , Marlen Schmicker  3 , Ellen Bentlage  9 , Daniella How  9 , Mona Ahmed  9 , Asma Aloui  7   10 , Omar Hammouda  5   11 , Laisa Liane Paineiras-Domingos  12   13 , Annemarie Braakman-Jansen  14 , Christian Wrede  14 , Sophia Bastoni  14   15 , Carlos Soares Pernambuco  16 , Leonardo Jose Mataruna-Dos-Santos  17 , Morteza Taheri  18 , Khadijeh Irandoust  18 , Aïmen Khacharem  19 , Nicola L Bragazzi  20   21 , Jad Adrian Washif  22 , Jordan M Glenn  23 , Nicholas T Bott  24 , Faiez Gargouri  8 , Lotfi Chaari  25 , Hadj Batatia  25 , Samira C Khoshnami  26 , Evangelia Samara  27 , Vasiliki Zisi  28 , Parasanth Sankar  29 , Waseem N Ahmed  30 , Gamal Mohamed Ali  31 , Osama Abdelkarim  31   32 , Mohamed Jarraya  5 , Kais El Abed  5 , Mohamed Romdhani  7 , Nizar Souissi  7 , Lisette Van Gemert-Pijnen  14 , Stephen J Bailey  33 , Wassim Moalla  5 , Jonathan Gómez-Raja  34 , Monique Epstein  35 , Robbert Sanderman  36 , Sebastian Schulz  37 , Achim Jerg  37 , Ramzi Al-Horani  38 , Taysir Mansi  39 , Mohamed Jmail  40 , Fernando Barbosa  41 , Fernando Ferreira-Santos  41 , Boštjan Šimunič  42 , Rado Pišot  42 , Andrea Gaggioli  43   44 , Piotr Zmijewski  45 , Jürgen M Steinacker  37 , Jana Strahler  46 , Laurel Riemann  47 , Bryan L Riemann  48 , Notger Mueller  3   4 , Karim Chamari  49   50 , Tarak Driss  2 , Anita Hoekelmann  1 ; ECLB-COVID19 Consortium
Affiliations
Free PMC article
Multicenter Study

Psychological consequences of COVID-19 home confinement: The ECLB-COVID19 multicenter study

Achraf Ammar et al. PLoS One. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Background: Public health recommendations and government measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have enforced restrictions on daily-living. While these measures are imperative to abate the spreading of COVID-19, the impact of these restrictions on mental health and emotional wellbeing is undefined. Therefore, an international online survey (ECLB-COVID19) was launched on April 6, 2020 in seven languages to elucidate the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Methods: The ECLB-COVID19 electronic survey was designed by a steering group of multidisciplinary scientists, following a structured review of the literature. The survey was uploaded and shared on the Google online-survey-platform and was promoted by thirty-five research organizations from Europe, North-Africa, Western-Asia and the Americas. All participants were asked for their mental wellbeing (SWEMWS) and depressive symptoms (SMFQ) with regard to "during" and "before" home confinement.

Results: Analysis was conducted on the first 1047 replies (54% women) from Asia (36%), Africa (40%), Europe (21%) and other (3%). The COVID-19 home confinement had a negative effect on both mental-wellbeing and on mood and feelings. Specifically, a significant decrease (p < .001 and Δ% = 9.4%) in total score of the SWEMWS questionnaire was noted. More individuals (+12.89%) reported a low mental wellbeing "during" compared to "before" home confinement. Furthermore, results from the mood and feelings questionnaire showed a significant increase by 44.9% (p < .001) in SMFQ total score with more people (+10%) showing depressive symptoms "during" compared to "before" home confinement.

Conclusion: The ECLB-COVID19 survey revealed an increased psychosocial strain triggered by the home confinement. To mitigate this high risk of mental disorders and to foster an Active and Healthy Confinement Lifestyle (AHCL), a crisis-oriented interdisciplinary intervention is urgently needed.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form (available on request from the corresponding author). Authors except Laura Riemann declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years, no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. Laura Riemann declare to have a commercial affiliation “PharmIAD, Inc, Savannah, GA, USA”. This funder provided support in the form of salaries for Laurel Riemann, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of this author are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. This commercial affiliation does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

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Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work. PharmIAD, Inc, Savannah, GA, USA provided support in the form of salaries for Laurel Riemann, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of this author are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.