Is the psychological well-being of a population associated with COVID-19 related survival?
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
Immunological mind-body research suggests mental health may also be important in the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate the potential influence of mental health as a protective factor for COVID-19 related mortality in the general population. The second goal was to examine this among populations of countries most affected by COVID-19 related mortality.
METHODS
Data sources were the Global Burden of Disease report 2017 and publicly reported situational reports of COVID-19. We described variables; calculated the spearman’s correlation coefficient, calculated the percentage of the variability of the data that is explained by the association. We explored inter-relationships among other variables: aged 70 or older, cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. A correlation matrix with plotted scatter matrix diagrams was produced.
RESULTS
Across 181 countries, the mean total COVID-19 related survivors per million was 999,949 (sd = 125), median = 999,993. The variable had a lognormal distribution; the mean mentally healthy per 100,000 was 85,411 (sd = 1,871), median = 85,634. The test of normality resulted in p-value < 0.001. Correlation of mentally healthy per 100,0000 and totals of COVID-19 related survivors wasϱs= 0.29 (n = 181, 95% CI 0.16–0.43). The variance explained by the relation between mental healthy and totals of COVID-19 related survivors was 8.4% (2.6–18.5%). Across countries most affected by COVID-19 related mortalityϱs= 0.49 (n = 45, 0.28–0.70), explaining 24.2% (7.7–49.3%).
CONCLUSION
A weak association was found between the psychological well-being of a population and COVID-19 related survival. This relationship explained between 2.6 and 18.5% of COVID-19 related survival. For countries most affected by COVID-19 related death, this association was moderate and explained between 7.7 and 49.3%. Confirmation of these important observational findings is needed with future individual patient data research.
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