COVID-19 is a devilishly versatile disease, attacking all manner of body systems and doing all manner of damage—to the lungs, the heart, the liver, the kidneys. Though it doesn’t attack the mind directly, the pandemic the virus has caused has been devastating to mental health, and in many cases, the most vulnerable group is women.
In a new study conducted by CARE, a non-profit international aid organization, investigators have found that while almost nobody is spared from the anxiety, worry and overall emotional fatigue of the coronavirus pandemic, women are almost three times as likely as men to report suffering from significant mental health consequences (27% compared to 10%), including anxiety, loss of appetite, inability to sleep and trouble completing everyday tasks.
The study was ambitious, involving surveys of 10,400 women and men in 38 countries including the U.S., as well as others in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. The investigators explored two different avenues of inquiry, first asking respondents about their emotional state and then looking into what might be behind the problems.
“We had a lot of qualitative data from women about stress, fear, anxiety, worry for the future,” says Emily Janoch, director of knowledge management and learning at CARE, who led the study. “Then we dug into those responses and looked for the causative factor.”
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