An efficient way to assess the effect of COVID-19 on mental health in the general population.

The current article discusses an efficient way to assess the effect of COVID-19 on mental health in the general population. It is maintained tat a meta-ecological study is needed to explore te effect of geograpically and temporally different pandemic characteristics o npopulations;mental health. Despite their potential shortcomings due to confounding and aggregation bias, meta-ecological study designs have successfully answered similar global questions, such as the role of air pollution on morbidity. In a meta-ecological study, a systematic review of prevalence before and during the pandemic in various locations with different responses to the pandemic should shed light on changes in mental health problems. It is concluded that because a meta-ecological study uses published and regularly updated information, it does not require expensive or time-consuming data collection. The crowdsourcing approach will speed up the process and could be the way forward to do large-scale research in times of social isolation. Investment in methods for harnessing information in a reliable and rapid way will enable decision makers worldwide to integrate a mental health science perspective into their response to the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)