Mental health research in the lower-middle-income countries of Africa and Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Lower middle - income countries of Africa and Asia have accommodated a large portion of the world's population, where mental health research has been under-prioritized. This study aimed to review all published research on mental health issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic in lower middle - income countries of the Afro-Asian region. METHODS: A search was conducted in the PubMed and PubMed Central databases using the terms "mental health," "psychiatric disorders," "COVID-19", "coronavirus," "Asia," "Africa," "Lower Middle-income countries." All articles published in the English language until 3rd July 2020 were included. RESULT: A total of 133 papers were found in lower-middle-income countries of Africa (n = 11) and Asia (n = 122), which discussed various aspects of mental health in the context of COVID-19. Most of the studies are cross-sectional studies that addressed mental morbidities, psychological reactions, stress, coping among the general population, and focused groups (healthcare workers, students, elderly, patients). Researchers attempted to develop and validate tools that measure certain psychological constructs (fear, anxiety) concerning COVID-19. Online surveys were the primary modality of researching this COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 related mental health research is scarce in lower-middle-income countries of Africa and Asia. Available researches suggest that mental health challenges during this COVID-19 pandemic are enormous and need attention. There is a need for policy and recommendations to deal with the mental health challenges in lower middle - income countries of Africa and Asia.

COVID-19-related risk perception, anxiety and protective behaviours among Nigerian adults: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Pandemics such as the current COVID-19 pandemic are often associated with heightened fear and significant adjustments in health behaviours. Aim: This study aimed to assess perceived risk, anxiety and protective behaviours of the general public during the early phase of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Nigeria. Methods: An online cross-sectional study among 1197 respondents aged 18 years and above between 27 April to 16 May 2020. Result: More than half (61.9%) of the respondents had high risk perception towards COVID-19, and high anxiety level was found in 37.2%. Male gender, being a Christian, having more than 12 years of formal education and high risk perception were positively associated with observance of more than one protective measure against COVID-19. The predictors of COVID-19-related anxiety were high risk perception and being a Muslim. Conclusions: This study showed that risk perception has an influence on both anxiety and observance of protective behaviours. Being a novel experience, this research has implications to support current and future responses to a pandemic experience.

Religious coping in the time of COVID-19 Pandemic in India and Nigeria: Finding of a cross-national community survey.

BACKGROUND: Religious and spiritual coping strategies is one of the possible tools that can be used to deal with stress and the negative consequences of life problems and illnesses. The study aims to assess religious coping in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODOLOGY: It was an online survey. The sample was collected using a snowball sampling technique as the data were collected through Google forms. The survey started on 22 April 2020 and was closed on 28 May 2020. The participants were from two countries, India and Nigeria. The inclusion criteria were age between 18 and 60 years, having completed at least 10 years of formal education, and have internet access. For data collection, Semi-structured proforma (demographic and personal characteristics) and Brief RCOPE was used to see the extent to which individuals engage in positive and negative forms of religious coping. RESULTS: A total of 647 individuals (360 from Nigeria and 287 from India) participated in the survey. A total of 188 (65.5%) participants in India reported no change in their religious activities since they heard about COVID-19, while, 160 (44.4%) in Nigeria reported a decrease in religious activities. Positive religious coping in the Nigerian population was significantly higher than the Indian population. Similarly, negative religious coping was significantly higher (for most of the items in the brief RCOPE) in the Indian population than the Nigerian population. CONCLUSION: Significant percentages of people after the COVID-19 pandemic took religious coping steps to overcome their problems. During this pandemic, positive religious coping among the Indian and Nigerian communities is more prevalent than negative religious coping. There is a substantial cross-national difference between Indians and Nigerians in the religious coping modes.

News reporting of suicidal behaviour in Nigeria: Adherence assessment to World Health Organization guidelines.

BACKGROUND: Sensible media reporting has been considered an important suicide prevention strategy which is an under-researched issue in Nigeria. There is a dearth of research assessing how the media has been reporting suicidal news to the general population in Nigeria. AIM: It was aimed to see the adherence of news reports to the World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines while reporting the events. METHODS: We searched the published contents of 10 English newspapers of Nigeria and assessed the adherence to the WHO media guidelines for reporting suicide from January 2010 to December 2019. RESULTS: Most of the reports (85.31%) mentioned completed suicides, 4.4% recorded suicides, and 9.5% recorded suicide-related homicides. The majority of the reports mentioned the name (85.6%) and profession (63.8%) of the person; the name of the method (92%) and life events (67.8%). The word 'suicide' was mentioned in the headline of 87.6% of the reports; the method was mentioned in the headline of 22.8% of the reports, and 31.7% of the reports referred to life events in the headline. Only 8.8% of reports had traced mental illness, 33.3% traced the warning signs, 2.8% mentioned evidence of substance abuse and very few reports mentioned educative materials. CONCLUSION: The study found that Nigeria's online newspapers are poorly adherent to the WHO media reporting guidelines. Explicit descriptions of the person, methods, life events, and mono-causal explanations were frequently published. Negligible initiatives have been found to educate the general people in the reports.

Suicide in Nigeria: observations from the content analysis of newspapers.

BACKGROUND: Suicide is a global public health problem and Nigeria is one of the epicentres of suicide in the world. However, there is a dearth of research exploring the epidemiological aspects of suicide in Nigeria. AIM: To examine the demographic information and precipitating events for suicides in Nigeria by analysing the contents of newspaper reports of suicide. METHODS: We searched, collected, and analysed published news reports about suicide from 10 English newspapers in Nigeria. A total of 350 suicide reports were assessed between January 2010 and December 2019 after screening and sorting. RESULTS: The mean (SD) age of the reported cases was 36.33 (15.48) years. Majority of the reported cases were male (80.6%), married (51.8%), students (33.6%), living in a semi-urban area (40.3%) and among the age group of 25-34 (25.3%). Hanging (48.6%) and poisoning (32.2%) were the most commonly reported methods of suicide. Financial constraints and marital conflicts were most commonly assumed precipitating factors. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that being male, married, or living in semi-urban areas are associated with suicide in Nigeria. Further community-based studies are warranted to generalise the findings and adopt appropriate preventive strategies.