The role of social support in the psychological illness of women

Factors Associated with Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress in Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVES

The objective of the study was to evaluate the factors associated with symptoms of posttraumatic stress in mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study conducted with mothers of children and adolescents living in Brazil, who answered an online questionnaire containing sociodemographic variables and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised. The Poisson regression model with robust variance was used to identify the factors associated with posttraumatic stress.

RESULTS

A percentage of 83.82% of mothers reported an overload in caring for their children during the pandemic. The prevalence of posttraumatic stress symptoms was 39.05%, and this condition was associated with younger age, living in the northern region of the country, using medications, presenting neuropsychiatric comorbidities and being little/more or less satisfied with life.

CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE

The mental health situation of mothers during and after the pandemic must be monitored, in order to guarantee public policies capable of optimizing the coping with the situation.

An Indicator of environmental enrichment to measure physical, social and cognitive activities in human daily life

BACKGROUND

The concept of environmental enrichment (EE) encompasses complex physical, social, cognitive, motor, and somatosensory stimuli to which individuals are differentially exposed. An indicator of EE comprising these elements would facilitate the study of the impact of EE in diverse clinical settings by allowing an easy and comparable measurement. This study aimed to create and test such an EE indicator based on the Florida Cognitive Activities Scale (FCAS), the Multidimensional Social Integration in Later Life Scale (SILLS), and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ).

METHODS

Participants with major depression and control subjects were recruited in this cross-sectional comparative study. Depressive symptom severity was assessed with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). The EE indicator was used to evaluate cognitive, social, and physical activity. We divided the sample into three levels of cognitive and social activities to construct an EE indicator and compared the obtained scores between participants with major depression and control subjects.

RESULTS

40 patients suffering from major depression and 50 control subjects were included. Higher HAM-D scores were associated with lower EE levels. Cognitive and social items exhibited adequate reliability. Control subjects reported higher scores in all three activities evaluated, except for some items of physical activities. This indicator of EE clearly differentiated between participants with major depression from control subjects.

CONCLUSIONS

FCAS, SILLS, and IPAQ used together are valid to evaluate EE. This EE indicator may be a useful tool during clinical practice. The cross-sectional design and the small sample size are limitations of the present study.