PMH29 To Assess the Psychological IMPACT of COVID-19 Lockdown Among Healthy Individuals in India.

Objectives: To assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 lockdown among healthy individuals in India Methods: A self-assessed cross-sectional web-based study was conducted between 3rd April and 4th May 2020 Centre for Epidemiological Study for Depression questionnaire was administered for assessing the depressive symptoms among general public during the COVID-19 lockdown Using the google forms the questionnaire was circulated among the public through social media Descriptive analysis was performed to represent the study characteristics, Chi-square test for assessing the associations of depressive symptoms among the study variables, and the logistic regression analysis for identifying the factors influencing the depressive symptoms Results: A total of 588 participants with a mean (SD) age of 27 59 (8 72) years were responded to the questionnaire The prevalence depressive symptoms were higher among males (54%) compared to females (36%) It was identified that the participants with educational background of pre-university education/diploma (58 22%) and middle school (71 42%), and occupation as semiskilled (60%) and unskilled workers (70%), social history of consumption alcohol (56 52%) and smoking (75%), and belong to joint family (53 10%) were the predictors for depressive symptoms Subgroup analysis identified that these factors influence depressive symptoms especially among male population Conclusions: It is an alarming situation that the depressive symptoms found in approximately 45% of healthy individuals during the COVID-19 lockdown Educational interventions by the government and non-government organizations are very much required to combat the progression of depressive symptoms into disorder