key: cord-0079184-k4mf6kjq authors: Dalecká, Andrea; Tomášková, Hana; Šlachtová, Hana; Skýbová, Dagmar; Mad’ar, Ratislav title: Self-Reported Mental Health and Lifestyle Behaviour During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Czech Population: Evidence From Two Cross-Sectional Surveys date: 2022-05-12 journal: Int J Public Health DOI: 10.3389/ijph.2022.1604395 sha: 992a85d0f5c7f0896a3f347b1523ec3317488bf7 doc_id: 79184 cord_uid: k4mf6kjq Objectives: Evidence of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental and physical health behaviours is limited. This study presents results of two cross-sectional surveys on mental health changes and its consequences on healthy and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours. Methods: An online survey was distributed during Spring 2020 (N = 9,168) and Autumn 2020 (N = 1,042) in the Czech Republic. Differences in mental health observed in both surveys were evaluated using Mann-Whitney test and logistic regressions were used to examine demographic and socio-economic determinants of COVID-19-related mental health issues and resulting healthy and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours. Results: In multivariable models, the youngest individuals, females, people with increased work demands and participants with a reduced personal income due to the COVID-19 pandemic were all negatively associated with self-reported mental health issues (p < 0.05). A worsened quality of sleep, dietary habits, physical activity and unhealthy behaviours were highly associated with affected mental health in the models adjusted for potential covariates (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Taken together, these findings suggest that health promotion strategies directed to individuals who are at risk should be encouraged to adopt and/or maintain positive health-related behaviours. The ongoing novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has become an unprecedented public health and economic threat worldwide that affects all individual of all ages and all countries [1, 2] . Due to the unrestrained spread of the disease and limited vaccine availability, many countries have been adopted strict restrictions that are designed to protect their citizens [3] [4] [5] [6] . Besides personal protective practices (hand washing, wearing face masks, keeping distance), there has also been a number of measures that influence the daily life of a population such as a stay-athome rule, social distancing, the closure of educational institutions and limitations of leisure-time activities [7] . Although such interventions are necessary to mitigate the transmission of the infection, this recommended isolation is likely to have a harmful effect on mental health and well-being as it might produce psychological distress, fear and loneliness [8, 9] . Moreover, it should be emphasised that the pandemic has also indirectly affected the economic and social stability of individuals and communities [10, 11] . Evaluating an individual's mental well-being and its resulting behavioural lifestyle response is, therefore, essential for developing the effective management of the global pandemic [12, 13] . Socio-demographic predictors, occupational and economical disbalance and personal beliefs are factors that can affect mental health [14, 15] . For instance, women, young people, people living alone and front-line workers evaluated their mental health issues (anxiety, depression) as being significantly worse in several studies [14, 16, 17] . The preliminary results of this study showed that subjectively perceived mental health was not evaluated as being momentous. Nevertheless, the first observation was conducted at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Czech Republic (Spring 2020), and therefore the effect of the lockdown and restrictions had not affected mental health for a sufficient length of time. Mental health was significantly affected by age, gender, marital status, increased work demands and socio-economic factors according to the preliminary results [18] . Most of the existing research on the pandemic-related consequences has focused on the immediate (one time-point) situation and does not reflect the possible development of risk perception and related psychological implications over time. The prolonged pandemic has inevitably brought financial uncertainties and long-lasting isolation from family and friends that have escalated mental health burdens. In the light of this situation, we present the results of a comparative analysis of public mental health from the first survey conducted in April 2020 (hereinafter "Spring 2020") and the second survey conducted in November-December 2020 (hereinafter "Autumn 2020") in the Czech population in order to strengthen the research evidence that is related to the individual determinants of mental health and its consequences. Emerging evidence has suggested that the mental health instability that has been caused by social isolation and stress during the COVID-19 pandemic [19, 20] might consequently influence the negative implications of the pandemic, e.g., a decrease in the compliance with the mitigating measures [21] and an increase in the unhealthy dietary and lifestyle factors [22, 23] . The effect might become even stronger if the trust and effective communication from the government and public health policy representatives are not sufficient and effective [12, 15, 24] . Recent studies have reported increases in the addictive lifestyle behaviours such as smoking and alcohol use [25] [26] [27] . By contrast, around a quarter of the United States adult participants has reduced their use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes [27] . Moreover, both negative and positive effects of the COVID-19 lockdown have been reported in relation to dietary habits. The number of snacks being consumed and the frequency of eating has increased, especially in young people [28, 29] , while favourable dietary changes including an increase in the consumption fresh products and home cooking have also been reported [30] [31] [32] . With respect to the limited opportunities for doing physical activities due to the closure of sport facilities, it has been suggested that there has been an increase in sedentary behaviours and a decrease in daily physical activities. Meanwhile, very few studies have reported an increase in physical activities among healthy adults [33, 34] . Diverse results have also been observed in the quality of sleep during the pandemic [25, [34] [35] [36] . It should be pointed out that stress and a worsened state of mental well-being are considered to be critical risk factors for negative lifestyle changes [25, 37] . Moreover, the observed lifestyle changes during the pandemic that have emerged have affected the various population groups in different ways. Therefore, in this population-based study, we examined the demographic, socio-economic and behavioural determinants of self-reported changes in healthy (i.e., diet, physical activity, quality of sleeping) and unhealthy (i.e., smoking, alcohol use, screen time) lifestyle behaviours during the periods of COVID-19 lockdowns. By identifying the individual-level determinants and at-risk groups, lifestyle and mental health interventions during pandemics might be targeted effectively. Two cross-sectional questionnaire surveys were conducted during the first (Spring 2020) and the second (Autumn 2020) wave of the spread of the coronavirus disease in the Czech Republic. The results presented here were collected during a 4-week period in both survey campaigns. The web questionnaire survey was announced on national TV and radio stations that have nationwide coverage. Therefore, individuals from all of the regions of the Czech Republic could participate in the survey. Respondents were also recruited through the website of the University of Ostrava where the link to the online questionnaire was available during the entire duration of the emergency. All procedures performed in the survey were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ostrava (Reference number: 30/2020). The gathered data were analysed and processed according the General Data Protection Regulation. This study was voluntary and strictly anonymous, therefore, as no identifying details (names, dates of birth, identity numbers, addresses etc.) were collected from the participants and even no personal contact with the respondents was performed, no informed consent of individuals was required for this kind of study. Subjectively perceived mental health was observed in both surveys and it has been hypothesized that it might develop over time of pandemic. In this cross-sectional study, differences between the first (Spring 2020) and the second (Autumn 2020) surveys were assessed for mental health by using Mann-Whitney test (on 5% significance level). Mental health was evaluated subjectively by answering the question "How would you evaluate your mental health in relation to COVID-19?". The variable was evaluated as average value of the 5-point (1 = "very good; . . .; 5 = "very bad") Likert scale. The binary variable "affected mental health" was created by grouping the categories "bad" and "very bad" (coded as 1) and categories "very good", "good" and "average" (coded as 0). No specific mental outcomes (e.g., anxiety, depression or loneliness) were separately evaluated. In case the respondent evaluated his/her mental health as "bad" or "very bad", the question "What is the reason of your worsened mental health?" was open for answer. The question was predefined with 13 reasons (Supplemental Material 1). The crude (univariate) and multivariable ordinal logistic regression on the significance level of 5% were conducted to analyse whether the individual demographic and socioeconomic factors (gender, age, education, marital status, increased work demands, decreased personal income and living with a child