Valbona Uka*
Kosovo
*Corresponding author: Valbona Uka, Kosovo
Submission: October 25, 2021Published: November 05, 2021
ISSN 2639-0612Volume5 Issue2
The first case of COVID-19 in Kosovo appeared on March 13, 2020, and continues to this day. This pandemic situation has been going on for 1 year and 7 months, the infection curve with Covid-19 is changing in different time periods, one period the virus is very aggressive while the next period the infection curve is decreasing, this change of the infection curve has confronted the population with news about the coronavirus (COVID-19) occupying the front pages of newspapers, and is continuing to cause anxiety, fear, insecurity even though the virus is weaker continues to infect us and put our lives in danger. This pandemic affects our health and reminds us how important it is to take care of our mental health in addition to our physical health.
Keywords: Covid-19; Kosovar population; Effect; Mental health
The recent Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on the mental health of the
Kosovar population. Local research has mainly focused on stress, anxiety, depression, and
burnout and these studies have highlighted the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, specifying
that fear of COVID-19 has a positive correlation with stress, anxiety, and depression in citizens
of Kosovo, so there is a positive correlation between DASS21 and COVID-19. The correlation
analysis results that stress, anxiety, and depression have a high positive correlation, but above
all, stress has the highest correlation continuing later with anxiety and depression. From this,
we conclude that for the Kosovar population the more they are afraid of COVID-19, the more
the level of stress, anxiety, and depression will increase [1].
However, researchers have also studied the demographic characteristics of the population
and the differences in the level of stress and anxiety. According to the results, we conclude that
there are differences in the level of anxiety and that men exhibit a higher level of anxiety than
women. In the level of stress, although the differences are not significant, there are differences
in the average where men still exhibit a higher level of anxiety and stress higher than women.
This result of ours is not consistent with other research like where women have actually
shown higher levels of stress and anxiety as much fear of COVID-19. [2].
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly affected health workers who are in the front
line against COVID-19, and have faced overwork at work, high stress, pressure, fear, fatigue,
insecurity; they have realized the danger to become infected and the pressure to provide
quality health services during the pandemic. Our findings show that the spread of COVID-19
in health workers has shown an intense workload, the need to continue living, the provision of
health services for patients with the virus, shows that there is a statistically significant change
in the level of chronic stress in health workers during the pandemic. Based on the correlation
analysis the result shows that there is a positive and quite significant relationship between
chronic stress and burn syndrome in health workers during the pandemic. Identifying and
preventing burns through psychological services would be a necessary help for health care
workers during the pandemic period [3-6].
The COVID-19 pandemic, according to research, has had a
profound impact on the physical health and well-being of the
population, beyond the impact on physical health, the ongoing
uncertainty about the pandemic, and the dramatic behavioral
changes required by social distance efforts, have a negative and
profound effect on mental health.
Based on some research in Kosovo, we conclude that:
1. The more one is afraid of COVID-19, the more the level of
anxiety, stress, and depression will increase [7-9].
2. Ore males have shown a higher level of anxiety and that
urban areas are more affected by the higher level of anxiety
than rural areas [10].
3. Age 50 shows the highest average anxiety.
4. The highest average of stress is displayed by persons aged
18-30 years.
5. Health workers have shown an intense workload and
chronic stress including the risk of burn syndrome after a
period of time.
These research results should be taken into account and the
recommendations given should be implemented, strategic planning
for the protection of mental health should be done by the Ministry
of Health, the establishment of a multidisciplinary team for
professional intervention during the pandemic, and the provision
of psycho-social services during and by COVID-19 [11,12].
© 2021 Valbona Uka, This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.