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Perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic among the tunisian population

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

N. Regaieg ,
I. Baati ,
M. Elleuch ,
S. Hentati  and
J. Masmoudi
N. Regaieg*
Affiliation:
Psychiatry “a” Department, Hedi Chaker UHC, Sfax, Tunisia, Sfax, Tunisia
I. Baati
Affiliation:
Psychiatry “a” Department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
M. Elleuch
Affiliation:
Psychiatry “a” Department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
S. Hentati
Affiliation:
Psychiatry “a” Department, Hedi Chaker University Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
J. Masmoudi
Affiliation:
Psychiatrie “a” Department, Hedi Chaker Hospital University -Sfax - Tunisia, sfax, Tunisia
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Documenting Tunisian’ stress responses to an unprecedented pandemic is essential for mental health interventions and policy-making.

Objectives

To describe the perceived stress generated by the Covid-19 epidemic and confinement among the Tunisian people.

Methods

Participants had to fill out a questionnaire including epidemiological data and the Perceived Stress Scale 10 (PSS10), which is the most widely used psychological instrument for measuring the stress perception. Individual scores can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress.

Results

Our study included 121 subjects, of which 70.6% were women.They had an average age of 36.52 years and a history of psychiatric disorders in 13.1% of cases, such as anxiety disorders (10.4%), depressive disorders (5.9%) and obsessive compulsive disorders (2.3%). More than one in two participants (61.4%) reported the presence of sleep disorders. Regarding medical history, participants declared having asthma (5%), diabetes (1.8%), high blood pressure (3.6%), and a chronic disease with corticosteroid treatment (5%). The mean PSS score was 16.96. This last was correlated to age (p<0.001), female gender (p<0.001), primary or secondary school level (p=0.03), a history of anxiety (p<0.001) and depressive disorders (p<0.001), and to sleep disorders (p<0.001).

Conclusions

The stress level among the Tunisian people during the Covid-19 pandemic was very close to that observed in other countries, deserving special attention especially among vulnerable populations.

Keywords

perceived stressCOVID-19PSS10psychological stress
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S287
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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