Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown Measures on Mental Health

Background: An Uncontrolled Novel COVID-19 started from Wuhan city of China in Late 2019 and spread worldwide has called for unprecedented measures, to prevent it Pakistan government Imposed lockdown on the entire country. Lockdown has a huge impact and affected on mental health of population. The present study aims to assess the effect of COVID-19 on mental health of population and identify the coping strategies to overcome this mental health issues caused by pandemic. Methods: An online survey was administered from 26 May-14 June 2020 to 398 participants. Post Hoc test was performed to examine the associations between general health questionnaire GHQ-12 and socio-economic variables. Results: Losing jobs due to pandemic and lockdown situation and using negative coping strategies were the factors associated with psychological disorders.This study shows high rates of anxiety and stress in younger population specifically in young women with higher odds of endorsing a worst mental health outcome. Outcomes were associated with a number of COVID-19 related risk factors such as challenging family relations, loss of job, no physical activity, financial burden, experiencing stress full events and suicidal ideation. Conclusion: The present situation requires awareness in public media which could be helpful to deal with this and this present article provides details of COVID-19 pandemic situation on mental health of younger population.