Mental Health during the COVID-19 Crisis in Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Jiyao Chen, Nusrat Farah, Rebecca Kechen Dong, Richard Z Chen, Wen Xu, Jin Yin, Bryan Z Chen, Andrew Yilong Delios, Saylor Miller, Xue Wan, Wenping Ye, Stephen X Zhang
Author Information
Jiyao Chen: College of Business, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA.
Nusrat Farah: College of Business and Analytics, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA.
Rebecca Kechen Dong: Business School, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia. ORCID
Richard Z Chen: Crescent Valley High School, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA.
Wen Xu: International Business and Management Department, Nottingham University Business School China, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, China. ORCID
Jin Yin: School of Humanities, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China. ORCID
Bryan Z Chen: Crescent Valley High School, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA.
Andrew Yilong Delios: Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
Saylor Miller: College of Business, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA.
Xue Wan: School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
Wenping Ye: Department of Business Administration, School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
Stephen X Zhang: Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia. ORCID
We aim to provide a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence rates of mental health symptoms among major African populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We include articles from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and medRxiv between 1 February 2020 and 6 February 2021, and pooled data using random-effects meta-analyses. We identify 28 studies and 32 independent samples from 12 African countries with a total of 15,071 participants. The pooled prevalence of anxiety was 37% in 27 studies, of depression was 45% in 24 studies, and of insomnia was 28% in 9 studies. The pooled prevalence rates of anxiety, depression, and insomnia in North Africa (44%, 55%, and 31%, respectively) are higher than those in Sub-Saharan Africa (31%, 30%, and 24%, respectively). We find (a) a scarcity of studies in several African countries with a high number of COVID-19 cases; (b) high heterogeneity among the studies; (c) the extent and pattern of prevalence of mental health symptoms in Africa is high and differs from elsewhere-more African adults suffer from depression rather than anxiety and insomnia during COVID 19 compared to adult populations in other countries/regions. Hence, our findings carry crucial implications and impact future research to enable evidence-based medicine in Africa.
