The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health: A Web-Based Study Among Romanian Adults.

Background In Romania, as in other parts of the world, the family doctor is the first to make contact with a healthy patient and is also the first to notice even the smallest pathological changes. In the context of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, the patient's communication with the family doctor became even closer and some behavioral changes could be easily noticed. Objective To assess the symptoms of anxiety and depression in the Romanian population using social media platforms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We conducted an anonymous, web-based cross-sectional survey consisting of 31 questions related to general characteristics (age, gender, education, inhabitancy, residence, smoking status, and alcohol consumption) and adapted GAD-7 (7-item General Anxiety Disorders questionnaire) and PHQ-9 (9-item Patient Health Questionnaire). This questionnaire was sent to volunteers in an electronic format through a social network (Facebook, Twitter). The data collected were statistically processed using IBM SPSS v25.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). The inclusion criteria were age over 18 years and no history of chronic disease. The exclusion criteria consisted of the absence of a mental illness diagnosis. Results From the 1254 respondents, 1232 cases were selected for statistical analysis after applying the exclusion criteria. The mean age was 35.94 (SD = 11.4, 95%CI=10.9-11.9) with a minimum of 18 years and a maximum of 97 years. Eighty-four point nine percent (84.9%; N=1046) of all study participants are female and 79.13% (N= 975) live in the urban area. A total of 188 (15.25%) were diagnosed with COVID-19 of which 31 (16.66%) were male and 157 (15%) were female. N=170 (13.8%) reported moderate symptoms of anxiety during the last two weeks before the survey while N=96 (7.8%) had severe anxiety. Twenty-two point two percent (22.2%; N=274) of the participants reported moderate symptoms of depression while 10.1% (N=125) had moderately severe symptoms and 6.6% (N=81) could be diagnosed with severe depression. A greater likelihood of screening for depression diagnosis was associated with ages between 25 and 34 years (OR=0.90, 95%CI=0.86-0.94, P<.001), 35 and 44 years (OR=0.88, 95%CI=0.84-0.93, P<.001), and 45 and 54 years (OR=0.87, 95%CI=0.82-0.92, P<.001). Also, a tendency was observed for women to be more prone to high levels of anxiety (OR=1.21, 95%CI=1.08-1.35, P< .001) and depression (OR=2.16, 95%CI=1.51-308, P< .005). Conclusions Regarding the high prevalence of depression and anxiety, especially in women, appropriate measures for the risk categories should be applied. In the new social context created by the COVID-19 pandemic, screening for psychiatric and psychological disorders should be performed by telemedicine.