Abstract
BACKGROUND: SARS-CoV-2, also known as COVID19, spread across the globe in 2020 and 2021 impacting many people, their livelihood, and their mental health. Because of how the disease spread, certain controls were enacted such as community lockdowns, social distancing, working remotely, restricting one's social contacts, and mask wearing. This caused unintended consequences where some people are left with psychological distress. While the media and the general public appear to be more focused on the physical health aspect of the virus, mental health has not received the same attention. This study examined the mental health of Canadians during the COVID19 pandemic. Results can be used to create policies and programs addressing mental health issues that have arisen from this global health crisis. METHODS: An online self-administered survey hosted by SurveyMonkey was conducted. The survey was disseminated through Reddit's subreddits, as well as contacts of contacts. The survey was open for three weeks and contained questions on demographics and how a participant perceived their mental health. RESULTS: Responses were received from 218 persons and over 200 respondents answered each question. According to Wilcoxon Signed-Ranked tests, people experienced an increase in depressive thoughts (p = 0.000), anxiety (p = 0.000), unbearable stress (p = 0.000), and trouble going to sleep or staying asleep (p = 0.000) in early 2021 compared to 2019. 77.7% of the respondents indicated that COVID19 has very likely or likely impacted their mental health. According to chi-square tests, location of residence in Canada did not affect perceived quality mental health (p = 0.1929) or perceived impact of COVID19 (p = 0.3986). There was, however, an association between age and perceived quality of mental health (p = 0.0043) but not with the perceived impact of COVID19 (p = 0.5977). CONCLUSION: In general, people are experiencing a diminished quality of mental health regardless of where they are located. Females and younger people were more affected than males, and older populations. Given these results, policymakers should allocate more resources to mental healthcare to help ensure that the next health crisis is not a mental health one.