Men feel their emotional health has worsened during the pandemic

• A Cleveland Clinic survey reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting men’s mental and physical health, while others are making healthier choices.

 

Billions of people around the world have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is having an additional impact on people’s mental health, notes the World Health Organization (WHO).

 

Many men find themselves in new and different roles as a result of this pandemic; for example, they are out of work or working around the clock at home caring for children with their partners while worrying about their own health and that of their family, explains Eric Klein, M.D., chair of Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute.

In an online survey of around 1,000 American men aged 18 and over, Cleveland Clinic found that 77 per cent of men report that their stress levels have increased as a result of COVID-19, 59 per cent of men have felt isolated during the pandemic and almost half (45 per cent) say their emotional/mental health has worsened during the pandemic.

For this year’s World Mental Health Day, the WHO, together with partner organisations United for Global Mental Health and the World Federation for Mental Health, is calling for a massive increase in investment in mental health. To drive public action worldwide, a campaign for World Mental Health Day entitled Move for Mental Health: Let’s Invest will be launched in September.

In the Dominican Republic, the National Mental Health Plan 2019-2022 refers to the Health Situation Analysis carried out by the Ministry of Public Health in 2014, which presents mental health as a complex problem that has not been fully assessed due to the limited availability of data; estimates of the prevalence of mental illness in the country show that around 20% of the Dominican population suffers from mental disorders.

The survey was conducted as part of Cleveland Clinic’s fifth annual educational campaign, “MENtion It”, which aims to address the fact that men often don’t mention health problems or take steps to prevent them. This year, Cleveland Clinic set out to see what effect the pandemic has had on men over the past six months and what their outlook is for the future.

Some of the key survey findings:

• Three in five men (59%) say COVID-19 has had a bigger negative impact on their mental health than the 2008 recession.
• 66% of men say they rarely talk about the impact COVID-19 has had on their mental health.
• Almost half of men (45%) feel healthier now than before the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Although 64% see no end to the COVID-19 outbreak in sight, most (71%) remain optimistic about the future as the world continues to fight COVID-19, showing that the pandemic has not completely dampened spirits.

“We want to remind men that their health shouldn’t take a back seat, especially during a pandemic,” said Dr. Klein. “If you have symptoms that indicate a real health problem, don’t be afraid to come to the hospital or schedule an appointment with a healthcare provider, either virtually or in person. Your health is too important not to.”

Survey methodology

Results of an online survey conducted among a national probability sample of a weighted total of 1,180 American men aged 18 and over living in the continental United States. The total sample data are nationally representative in terms of age, ethnicity, household income and educational attainment. The online survey was conducted by YouGov and completed between 31 July and 3 August 2020. The margin of error (MOE) for the total sample at the 95% confidence level is +/- 2.91 percentage points.