Mental health and the pandemic

[Note: This post first appeared on the Caucasus Data Blog, a joint production of CRRC Georgia and OC Media. It was written by Tsisana Khundadze and Mariam Kobaladze, Senior Researchers at CRRC Georgia. The views presented within this article are the authors’ alone, and do not reflect the views of UN Women, UNDP, CRRC Georgia, or any related entity.]

Nearly half of Georgians’ report negative impacts on their psychological health because of the pandemic, and women have been one of the worst affected groups. 

Although the pandemic has been primarily a physical health crisis, it has also had large effects on people’s mental health. The pandemic altered the way people study, work, and travel — as well as almost every other aspect of everyday life.

Research from other countries has shown the pandemic has led to a significant rise in symptoms of anxiety disorder and/or depressive disorder. 

The Rapid Gender Assessment survey CRRC-Georgia conducted for UN Women and UNDP in October 2020 asked the adult population of Georgia if their own or their children’s psychological health had been affected as a result of the Coronavirus. 

The results showed that women were significantly more likely to experience psychological health challenges as were people who experienced delayed access to services and significant changes to their everyday lives.

Unsurprisingly, given the uncertainty and stress involved in the pandemic, large shares of Georgians report they or their children experienced negative psychological outcomes from the pandemic. Data from the Rapid Gender Assessment survey shows that COVID-19 negatively affected around half of Georgians’ psychological health. In contrast, only 19% of Georgians who have children report that their children experienced psychological issues.

Although the majority of the population did not experience major issues in accessing basic services, around a third (31%) of Georgians reported some or major difficulties in accessing health services. Overall, 40% reported having at least some difficulty in accessing one of the services listed on the chart below. Aside from accessing services, 25% of working people also experienced a significant change in that they started working from home.

Plausibly, experiencing difficulty in accessing the important services listed above or significant changes in daily life would increase someone’s stress and anxiety levels. To explore whether this took place, a series of regression models testing for associations between these issues in addition to demographic factors are explored below.

The first regression analysis shows that women were 1.4 times more likely to report experiencing mental health issues than men. There were no significant differences between age groups, settlement types, education levels, employment statuses, or whether or not the household had children living in it.

Challenges with access to basic services are associated with mental health problems, but not the move to remote work. The more difficulty a person encountered in accessing basic services, the more likely they were to report that their mental health was affected. While a person with no difficulty accessing services had a 42 percent chance of experiencing mental health problems, a person who had difficulty accessing six services had an 87 percent chance of experiencing them. 

Note: This chart was generated from a regression model. The model includes sex (male, female), age group (18-34, 35-54, 55+), settlement type (capital, urban, rural), education (secondary or lower, secondary technical, higher than secondary), employment status before pandemic (employed, not employed), change in typical workplace (which shows if a person had to start working from home instead of the office. Change in typical workplace, no change in typical workplace), having children in the household (no children, household has children), and an index of difficulty in accessing various services.

A second regression analysis also shows a number of differences between those who reported their children experiencing mental health challenges during the pandemic. 

People living in the capital were 1.5 times more likely to say their children experienced issues with mental health compared with people in other urban and rural areas. There were no significant differences between genders, age groups, education levels, and employment statuses when controlling for other factors. Notably, there were gender-related differences when the regression only considered demographic factors, but the association was no longer significant after taking into account non-demographic variables.

People who experienced a change in their typical workplace were 1.9 times less likely to say their children experienced mental health issues than people who did not have any significant changes in the workplace. The more difficulty a person encountered in accessing basic services, the more likely they were to report their children’s mental health was affected. Additionally, people who reported that their own mental health was affected by COVID-19 were around six times more likely to say their children’s mental health was affected, compared to people, who did not say their own mental health was affected. 

Note: This chart was generated from a regression model. The model includes sex (male, female), age group (18-34, 35-54, 55+), settlement type (capital, urban, rural), education (secondary or lower, secondary technical, higher than secondary), employment status before pandemic (employed, not employed), change in typical workplace (which shows if a person had to start working from home instead of office. Change in typical workplace, no change in typical workplace), reporting COVID-19 affecting own mental health (not affected, affected), and index of difficulty in accessing various services.

About half of the public experienced mental health problems as a result of the pandemic, and women were particularly likely to admit they experienced issues around this. Above and beyond all other factors though, people who had trouble accessing basic services were most likely to be affected.

The data used in this article is available here.

Common Challenges Facing the Elderly in Georgia

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Multiple social, psychological, and biological factors determine the level of mental health of a person at any point in time. In addition to the typical life stressors common to all people, older people are more likely to experience events such as bereavement, a drop in socioeconomic status with retirement, or a disability.” According to the WHO, these factors, among others, can result in isolation, loss of independence, loneliness and psychological distress in older people. D. Srinivasan, psychiatrist, at Kovai Medical Center and Hospital in Tamil Nadu, India has highlighted some common social and psychological problems faced by the elderly including, loss of confidence and sensitivity to minor symptoms of illness, a chronic state of depression when losing financial independence or mobility, emptiness syndrome when children no longer live with parents, and a sense of worthlessness and hopelessness. This blog looks at whether these factors affect the elderly population’s health in Georgia. For this reason, the blog examines the extent to which elderly (56+) people in Georgia are influenced by a sense of emptiness and loneliness, as well as the types of economic conditions in which they live.

According to survey results from the Caucasus Barometer (CB) 2011, 20% of Georgians 56 and older experienced a general sense of emptiness. By comparison, the proportion of younger age groups (18-35 and 36-55) who reported experiencing emptiness was half of that (9% and 11%, respectively).

The following chart shows that 40% of Georgians, 56 and older felt that there were enough people to whom they felt close, and 49% who more or less thought that there were enough people close to them. Only 12% rejected the idea of having a sufficient amount of close people around. However, it is also worth mentioning that exactly the same percentage (12% for each) of individuals was present in the other two younger age groups (18-35 and 36-55) who also turned down the idea (‘there are enough people to whom I feel close’).

According to survey results, a sense of emptiness (20%) and loneliness (12%) among Georgia’s elderly population is not high. One of the explanations of this tendency could be that in Georgia it is common for elderly people to continue living with their children and grandchildren. This likely gives them the opportunity to stay actively engaged in family life through taking care of grandchildren, helping other family members with running the household, as well as being taken care of whenever necessary.

This way of living gives a smaller place to thoughts of being unwanted or useless, lonely or depressed and can be considered as an alternative to some common recommendations doctors give in scope of organizing manner of living for aged people according to Amutha Kannan.

If problems are not very visible for the aged population in Georgia (from a social perspective), their economic state gives a significantly different picture. According to the CB 2011 survey results, 40% of elderly people (56+) in Georgia reported living in poor economic conditions not having enough money for food in the household. Younger Georgians, by comparison, attested to living in similar poor economic conditions and not having enough money for food in the household (24% of the 36- 55 age group and 15% of the 18 – 35 age group).

This blog post reviewed factors that negatively affect the elderly’s mental health in Georgia. Hence, in comparison to social settings for older people in Georgia, their economic conditions can be considered a serious challenge to remain physically and mentally healthy. To further explore this subject and other issues influencing aging people’s health in Georgia, we recommend exploring our data using the ODA tool here.

Unemployment in Azerbaijan: Beyond the Economic Consequences

Unemployment following the collapse of the command economies in the Caucasus has had consequences far beyond the traditional questions of income. Unemployment affects people’s psychological condition and, on a more basic level, the very fabric of society.

Rufat Efendiyev conducted a quantitative survey among 492 individuals (proportionally selected in each district) who were registered as unemployed in Baku. In his research, Efendiyev found a steep increase in the number of physical and mental illnesses of the unemployed population. Additionally, 67% of respondents described their psychological condition as stressful because of financial difficulties.

In a particularly worrying development, Efendiyev also highlighted the age discrepancies in the unemployed population. Among those officially registered as unemployed in Baku those between 24-29 years predominate (24.4%) compared to other age groups. Efendiyev also found that 26.6% of respondents mentioned the absence of connections and friends as a barrier to getting a job.

Young, unemployed and disgruntled males, as has been shown in other contexts, is one of the most important groups to properly integrate into the workforce; this group is capable of creating large and possible traumatic social upheaval if their expectations with regards to the future are not met. The research points to the importance of youth employment programs and efforts to combat non-economic manifestations of unemployment.

Efendiyev’s book in Azeri, English and Russian is available here or from the CRRC Web site.