TY - JOUR
T1 - Mental health during the covid-19 crisis in africa
T2 - A systematic review and meta-analysis
AU - Chen, Jiyao
AU - Farah, Nusrat
AU - Dong, Rebecca Kechen
AU - Chen, Richard Z.
AU - Xu, Wen
AU - Yin, Jin
AU - Chen, Bryan Z.
AU - Delios, Andrew Yilong
AU - Miller, Saylor
AU - Wan, Xue
AU - Ye, Wenping
AU - Zhang, Stephen X.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: Jiyao Chen has received research support from the College of Business, Oregon State University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/10/2
Y1 - 2021/10/2
N2 - We aim to provide a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence rates of mental health symptoms among major African populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We include articles from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and medRxiv between 1 February 2020 and 6 February 2021, and pooled data using random-effects meta-analyses. We identify 28 studies and 32 independent samples from 12 African countries with a total of 15,071 participants. The pooled prevalence of anxiety was 37% in 27 studies, of depression was 45% in 24 studies, and of insomnia was 28% in 9 studies. The pooled prevalence rates of anxiety, depression, and insomnia in North Africa (44%, 55%, and 31%, respectively) are higher than those in Sub-Saharan Africa (31%, 30%, and 24%, respectively). We find (a) a scarcity of studies in several African countries with a high number of COVID-19 cases; (b) high heterogeneity among the studies; (c) the extent and pattern of prevalence of mental health symptoms in Africa is high and differs from elsewhere—more African adults suffer from depression rather than anxiety and insomnia during COVID 19 compared to adult populations in other countries/regions. Hence, our findings carry crucial implications and impact future research to enable evidence-based medicine in Africa.
AB - We aim to provide a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence rates of mental health symptoms among major African populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We include articles from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and medRxiv between 1 February 2020 and 6 February 2021, and pooled data using random-effects meta-analyses. We identify 28 studies and 32 independent samples from 12 African countries with a total of 15,071 participants. The pooled prevalence of anxiety was 37% in 27 studies, of depression was 45% in 24 studies, and of insomnia was 28% in 9 studies. The pooled prevalence rates of anxiety, depression, and insomnia in North Africa (44%, 55%, and 31%, respectively) are higher than those in Sub-Saharan Africa (31%, 30%, and 24%, respectively). We find (a) a scarcity of studies in several African countries with a high number of COVID-19 cases; (b) high heterogeneity among the studies; (c) the extent and pattern of prevalence of mental health symptoms in Africa is high and differs from elsewhere—more African adults suffer from depression rather than anxiety and insomnia during COVID 19 compared to adult populations in other countries/regions. Hence, our findings carry crucial implications and impact future research to enable evidence-based medicine in Africa.
KW - Anxiety
KW - Depression
KW - General population
KW - Healthcare workers
KW - Insomnia
KW - Mental health
KW - Pandemic
KW - Prevalence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116666676&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph182010604
DO - 10.3390/ijerph182010604
M3 - Review article
C2 - 34682357
AN - SCOPUS:85116666676
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 18
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 20
M1 - 10604
ER -
