| THE EFFECT OF PANDEMIC TO |
| STRESS PERCEPTION |
Due to the rise of the pandemic, numerous people are introduced to many sorts
of new experiences and different perspectives, and stress is one of them. We can
argue that stress is synonymous with hardships or challenges. Indeed when we
experience adversity such as the pandemic we would also experience higher levels of
perceived stress.
Stress is prevalent during the pandemic. In a study about the prevalence of
stress, anxiety, and depression in the general population during the COVID-19
pandemic, the results show that in 5 studies with a sample size of 9076 people 29.6%
show prevalence of stress.(1) This means that during the pandemic, people may not
only experience risks to their physical health but also to their mental health.
Perceived stress is about one's thoughts and feelings about how much stress they
are experiencing, by being in the middle of a pandemic there are numerous ways and
factors that can affect perceived stress. According to a study published in August of
2020 about perceived stress among healthcare professionals and their ways of coping,
a factor that could influence healthcare professionals’ perceived stress during the
pandemic is having children. The result of their study showed that those who had
children reported lower levels of perceived stress than their colleagues who did not.(2)
The impact of the pandemic suggests higher levels of stress especially in
vulnerable populations. A study in October of 2020 about self-perceived stress during
the quarantine of the COVID-19 pandemic in Paraguay concluded that the pandemic
has a stressful impact on the people of Paraguay reporting a moderate level of selfperceived stress.(3)
In conclusion, the effect of the pandemic we are experiencing raises our level of
perceived stress because of the many contributing factors that we may or may not
encounter during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(1) Salari, N., Hosseinian-Far, A., Jalali, R. et al. Prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among the general population
during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Global Health 16, 57 (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00589-w
(2) Babore, Alessandra et al. “Psychological effects of the COVID-2019 pandemic: Perceived stress and coping strategies
among healthcare professionals.” Psychiatry research vol. 293 (2020): 113366. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113366
(3) Torales J, Ríos-González C, Barrios I, O'Higgins M, González I, García O, Castaldelli-Maia JM and Ventriglio A (2020) SelfPerceived Stress During the Quarantine of COVID-19 Pandemic in Paraguay: An Exploratory Survey. Front. Psychiatry
11:558691. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.558691