Taking stock of mental health trends in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic MentalHealth Pandemic Coronavirus Disease COVID medrxivpreprint UnivOfKansas
By Suchandrima BhowmikOct 18 2022Reviewed by Danielle Ellis, B.Sc. The novel coronavirus disease outbreak that emerged in Wuhan, China, in 2019 soon spread to the rest of the world, causing more than 4.2 million infections and about 85 thousand deaths within the first year in 2020. As a result, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020.
One previous study by Bulai and Amico implemented a network analysis to determine COVID-19 interactions among various regions of Italy and the impact of the Italian government policies to control the spread of the disease. They used six indicators to form a correlation network known as "Covidome," which showed the north-south clustering of the regions in Italy.
Study findings The results indicated no clear community distinction for the three mental health indicators except for a slight South region clustering. An allegiance matrix constructed using the three mental health indicators showed three main clusters, out of which the south geographic region was most interesting. However, the south region did not include Arkansas, West Virginia, and Virginia, while it included Nevada, North Carolina, and California, which are non-southern states.
On the feeling anxious variable, the midwest exhibited minimal eigenvector centrality and northeast maximum values. In the second period, maximum values were observed in the south and minimum values in the northeast. The south had the lowest values during the third period, while the northeast had the highest.