Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and psychological distress in China: Does neighbourhood matter?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144203Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Living in a quiet neighbourhood with sufficient sunshine and good indoor air quality is associated with lesser distress.

  • People living in an infected community are associated with a higher level of psychological distress.

  • A person’s perception of expected duration of COVID-19 increases with higher psychological level.

  • Quiet and a well-maintained environment could reduce negative effects of long expected duration of COVID-19 on distress.

Abstract

Using individual data (n = 937) obtained from an online questionnaire between 20th January and 13th February, the early stage of the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in 2020, we explore the direct association between people's perceptions of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and psychological distress. We further examine the moderating role of neighbourhood environment and this distress. We find that people living in infected communities tend to perceive higher level of psychological distress compared to people living in uninfected communities. People's expected duration of COVID-19 is associated with higher psychological distress and this is partially moderated by the perception of neighbourhood noise level and overall environment quality. Additional results quantify the evidence that a quiet and well maintained neighbourhood environment could reduce the negative influences of expectation of a long duration of COVID-19 on people's psychological distress.

Keywords

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Psychological distress
Neighbourhood environment
Kessler psychological distress scale

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