Influence of social media exposure on mental health in relation with covid-19 pandemic in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Introduction: WHO (World Health Organization) declared Covid 19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020 and issued specific guidelines on how to handle the global crisis. The virus spreads through tiny respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes, and speaks, and by aerosols that tend to remain in the air and surfaces for a longer time. When people come into contact with these contaminated surfaces, they also get infected. Covid-19 transmissibility has been estimated at 4.08, suggesting that on average, every Covid-19 infected person will spread the infection to 4 new persons.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted online from May 15th, 2020, to May 25th, 2020, which is the 4th phase of lockdown when the infection rate was increasing alarmingly. Informed consent obtained from people with given assurance of no personal identification details will be revealed, such as personal phone number or mail ID obtained. People above 18 years and people from various districts of West Bengal in India were included in this study. The study consisted of basic socio-demographic details, statements regarding usage of social media to get information about Covid 19, and questions in the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale and GHQ-12.Results: 845 (70.4 %) people were graduates or postgraduates, and 111 (9.2 %) were Ph.D. holders. 639 (53.2 %) people were married. 843 (70.3 %) people have employed either self or private or government sector and 49 (4 %) people though native to the state of West Bengal lived in other states. As shown in Table 1, the distribution of the study population in terms of age group, sex, education, occupation, marital status, and domicile was not uniform between social media exposure. With relation to social media exposure, 35.5 % of people (427) reported as 'often & most often and 37.9 % of people reported as 'some time'.Conclusion: Social media has become a tool for news collection, and people exposed to social media were unaware of the reliability of the news, which plays a significant role in creating irrational beliefs & unscientific action towards Covid-19 pandemic management. This study revealed a significant correlation between social media exposure and mental health issues. Mental health issues are going to be the ongoing problem that affects the country's-states, socioeconomic balance, and more attention has to be paid to it along with the battle of containing the Covid-19.