COVID-19: Highest decline in emotional, mental health observed in Turkey

* Photo: Arife Karakum

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The Ipsos research company conducted a survey for the World Economic Forum and asked a series of questions to 21 thousand people under the age of 70 in 30 countries across the world. The survey results have shown that the emotional and mental health of the people living in Turkey has been most negatively affected during the pandemic.

61 percent of respondents from Turkey have indicated that their emotional and mental health has been harmed due to coronavirus. The average rate of decline in emotional and mental health is 45 percent across the world. To put it differently, almost one out of every two people have been negatively affected by the pandemic, both mentally and emotionally.

In 11 of the 30 countries where the surveys were conducted, at least half of the respondents have reported a decline in their emotional and mental health. While Turkey ranks first in this list with 61 percent, it is followed by Chile with 56 percent and by Hungary with 56 percent.

Almost half of the people living in Italy, Brazil, Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Peru, Canada and Poland have also reported a decline.

Only the respondents living in China, India and Saudi Arabia have reported an improvement in their mental and emotional health.

Changes since early 2021

The questions of Ipsos were not limited to the period since the pandemic broke out. The company also asked its respondents, "How has your emotional and mental health changed since the beginning of 2021?" 27 percent have said that their health has taken a turn for the worse.

The country with the highest decline in mental and emotional health since the beginning of 2021 is again Turkey, where 43 percent have said that their mental and emotional health has got worse since then. Turkey is followed by Hungary with 30 percent and France with 29 percent.

Similarly to the above results, the countries that have reported an improvement in their mental and emotional health over the past three and a half months are China, India and Saudi Arabia.

The average rate of those who have seen an improvement in their mental and emotional health in this period has been calculated as 23 percent, which is 7 percentage points higher than the rate reported for the previous year. 51 percent of the respondents have said that there has been no change in their mental or emotional health since January 2021.

Return to pre-COVID normal life

Ipsos also asked the participants, "How much do you think it will last until we return to the pre-COVID normal life?"

While 59 percent of the participants have said that it will happen "within 12 months", 10 percent have indicated that it will take more than three years. 8 percent have said that "it will never happen."

While over 70 percent of the participants from Saudi Arabia, Russia, India and China are sure that their lives will return to normal within a year, 80 percent from Japan and over half of the respondents from France, Italy, South Korea and Spain think that it will take longer. (HA/SD)