Psychological impact of the third wave of covid-19 and infodemics on mental health of medical teachers of Islamabad, Pakistan

Irfan Afzal Mughal; Noor-ul-ain Irfan; Asma Irfan; Amna Faruqi; Saima Latif Qureshi; Tooba Zafar

Abstract
Objective: To determine mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and cognitive-behavioural changes in medical teachers due to a sudden rise in covid-19 cases along with a flood of social media traffic, mostly misinformation.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted online from March to April 2021 and included 227 Medical teachers of HBS Medical College, IMDC, Rawal, and Federal Medical College, Islamabad. Those who were known cases of anxiety and depression were excluded from the study. We used online survey through Google docs. The Questionnaire inquired demographic information, info-media use and mental health functioning. A Chi-square test was applied to calculate the association of mental disorders with infodemics.
Results: Out of 227 teachers, 64(28.19%) were male and 163(71.8%) females. They became easily annoyed or irritable (p=0.028) and felt afraid and had problems with appetite (p=0.001). The older age group, 66.1% significantly felt fearful (p=0.001) which was more in females 82.4% (p=0.001).
Conclusion: Mental health problems due to the psychological impact of the Covid-19 pandemic were positively associated with the frequent use of info-media during the outbreak.

Key words: Infodemics, medical teachers, mental health, depression, anxiety.

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