Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mexican Population: A Systematic Review.

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on mental health in the general population, but no systematic synthesis of evidence of this effect has been undertaken for the Mexican population. Relevant studies were identified through the systematic search in five databases until December, 2021. The selection of studies and the evaluation of their methodological quality were performed in pairs. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used for study quality appraisal. The protocol of this systematic review was registered with PROSPERO (protocol ID CRD42021278868). This review included 15 studies, which ranged from 252 to 9361 participants, with a total of 26,799 participants. The findings show that COVID-19 has an impact on the Mexican population's mental health and is particularly associated with anxiety, depression, stress and distress. Females and younger age are risk factors for development mental health symptoms. Mitigating the negative effects of COVID-19 on mental health should be a public health priority in Mexico.