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We know that the pandemic has had a short-term impact on mental health. But it is more complicated to determine if the phenomenon affects all populations around the world and if it can settle over a long period. According to a new report, India would be hit hard with an increase in headaches directly linked to stress levels, themselves on the rise since the start of the health crisis.
Considered as the evil of the century, in the same way as a sedentary lifestyle, the deterioration of mental health is such that the World Health Organization (WHO) called as early as 2022 on “policy makers and mental health advocates to intensify their commitment and action to change attitudes, measures and approaches towards mental health, its determinants and the care provided for it consecrated”. A report in which the health authority recalls that in 2019, i.e. before the health crisis, nearly a billion people suffered from a mental disorder, including 14% of adolescents, and that levels of stress and anxiety had jumped by more than 25% in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. A finding confirmed in France by Public health Francewhich reported at the end of 2022 a “significant deterioration” in mental health in connection with the pandemic, but also in other countries of the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States.
Work and financial problems
A new report by HANSA Research for Saridon, a drug brand spun off from Bayer’s Consumer Health division in India, reveals that the world’s most populous country is no exception, quite the contrary. More than 5,310 people aged 22 to 45 and from twenty cities were interviewed for the purposes of this study, which tells us that 93% of respondents who had suffered from headaches reported a significant increase in these, related to a high level of stress. A finding to be compared with another figure: one in three respondents consider themselves to be more stressed since the Covid-19 pandemic, although the causes mentioned by the panel are not (all) directly linked to health issues.
Among the stress factors cited by respondents, first and foremost are financial problems and pressure at work, whether for people with a job or the inactive. Then come health problems and family conflicts, which also prove to be stressors for the panel. “The findings underscore the need for effective stress management strategies in a post-pandemic world,” the study authors say in a statement. communicated. It should also be noted that the level of stress has increased by 12% and 13% among 26-35 year olds and 36-45 year olds respectively compared to the period preceding the pandemic, and that 26-35 year olds are considered to be the most stressed generation (87%).
Bombay, “headache capital”
While stress induces an increase in headaches, we also realize that it can play on attention. Nearly 40% of respondents indicate, for example, having more difficulty concentrating fully on the tasks to be accomplished on a daily basis, and almost half confide that a reduction in mental workload, whether related to professional responsibilities or household chores, usually solves this problem.
Among the other results of the report, we learn that Bombay is considered “the capital of the headache”. In any case, it is the one and only main city (level 1 city) where the incidence of headaches is greater than 90%. It is slightly ahead of Chennai (89%). Tier 2 cities include Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar where as many as 99% of residents claim to suffer from headaches.