Mental health results were good in countries with less Covid restrictions

According to a study published in The Lancet Public Health Journal, countries attempting to control COVID-19 infection with stricter public regulations have more mental health results than countries attempting to control or eliminate COVID-19 infection. It was bad.

A team led by researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada used data from two surveys in 15 countries from April 2020 to June 2021.

Countries have fallen into two categories: countries that seek to eliminate COVID-19 infections and countries that aim to mitigate or reduce the spread of the virus within the country.

Eliminator countries include Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Mitigation countries include Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Eliminator countries such as South Korea and Japan have implemented early and targeted actions such as international travel bans. This resulted in lower levels of COVID-19 infection, fewer deaths and less negative impact on mental health compared to mitigated countries.

Researchers said relaxed countries such as Canada, France and the United Kingdom are less strict about travel and rely on physical distances, collection restrictions, and stay-at-home orders.

They said these measures restricted social ties and were associated with greater psychological distress, lower living ratings, and lower government opinion compared to those living in eliminator countries.

“The government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely debated,” said Lara Aknin, associate professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University.

“At first glance, the eliminator country may appear to have implemented a much stricter strategy than any other country because of the widely reported international travel ban.”

Researchers pointed out that effective policies to contain a pandemic need to involve strategies and resources to address the negative effects on mental health.

For future pandemics, they suggest that the government can reduce virus infections, but prioritize policies that impose less restrictions on daily life, such as restricting domestic travel instead of restricting meetings.

Researchers suggest that timely elimination strategies using testing and contact tracing can minimize mortality without the need for more restrictive policy measures to control the spread of the virus. doing.

(Only the headings and images in this report may have been recreated by Business Standard staff. The rest of the content is automatically generated from the syndicated feed.)

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