Psycho-social factors associated with the nationwide lockdown in India during COVID- 19 pandemic

Nilima, Nilima; Kaushik, Siddharth; Tiwary, Bhaskar; Pandey, Piyush Kant

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the psycho-social factors associated with COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown in India. STUDY DESIGN: An online survey was conducted from April 11 through April 16, 2020 in 28 states and 8 union territories (UT) of India. The potential participants were recruited using snowball sampling procedure. METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among the people of all states in India. A spatial analysis was performed and Moran's I statistic was applied to investigate the overall clustering of locations. Fisher's exact test was used to investigate associations. GeoDa and R console were used to analyze the data. A total of [Formula: see text] responses were received. RESULTS: Those worried for their family's health were likely to follow the lockdown measures [Formula: see text] Significant association was observed [Formula: see text] between following the lockdown measures and being satisfied with the government strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant relation was observed between the gender (p = 0.001), job profile [Formula: see text] and physical activity [Formula: see text] were observed to be associated with the psycho-social impact. CONCLUSION: Government and public health officials should consider the sentiments of the community while planning strategies relating to the pandemic. The findings of this study will assist the policymakers in emphasizing the psychological well-being of individuals, along with physical health.