RT Journal Article
T1 Psychological distress during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador: Cross-sectional study
A1 Gómez Salgado, Juan
A1 Adanaqué Bravo, Ingrid
A1 Ortega Moreno, Mónica
A1 Allande Cussó, Regina
A1 Arias Ulloa, Cristian Arturo
A1 Ruiz Frutos, Carlos
AB The effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on the mental health of citizens from Asia, Europe,or North America begin to be known, but there are fewer publications on its effects in LatinAmerican countries. In this study, its impact in Ecuador is described, with data collected during the first phase of the pandemic. The objective of this study was to analyse the level ofpsychological distress in the population of Ecuador during the first phase of the COVID-19pandemicCross-sectional observational study. The questionnaires were collected through an onlineself-developed questionnaire, between April 2 and May 17, 2020, using the non-probabilisticsampling methodology: snowball method. The variables considered were sociodemographic variables, physical symptoms, health status, COVID-19 contact history, preventivemeasures, and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The percentage with high psychological distress (PD) (GHQ-12 � 3) has been somewhat lower than that found in Europe,being women, young people, people with higher level of education, living without a partner,not living with children or children under 16 years of age, and with worse perception of healththe groups with the highest PD. Differences have been observed with European studiesregarding common symptoms, preventive measures to avoid contagion, percentage ofinfected relatives, or diagnostic tests performedThe use of the same research instrument, validated in Europe and adapted to Ecuador, hasfacilitated the comparison of the found results and differences, which can be explained by socio-economic or cultural variables, the health system, level of information, or by preventive measures put in place to prevent the pandemic
PB Public Library of Science
SN 1932-6203
YR 2021
FD 2021-09
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/22721
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/22721
LA eng
NO Gómez-Salgado, J., Adanaque-Bravo, I., Ortega-Moreno, M., Allande-Cussó, R., Arias-Ulloa, C. A., & Ruiz-Frutos, C. (2021). Psychological distress during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador: Cross-sectional study. In S. K. S. Patel (Ed.), PLOS ONE (Vol. 16, Issue 9, p. e0257661). Public Library of Science (PLoS). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257661
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 14 jul 2026