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Introduction: the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with mental health symptoms. Objective: to screen mental health symptoms by validating the factor structure of the screening test related to sociodemographic variables during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: we worked with 36,811 Mexican (M = 34 years; SD = 11.68), 61.8% (22,743) women, 15.3% (5,643) losing loved ones, 12.7% (4,683) having a COVID-19 condition, and 8.22% (3,027) sought remote psychological care. We required participants to answer the Posttraumatic Stress Checklist (PCL-C), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), Goldberg’s Generalized Anxiety Questionnaire, Health Anxiety, and Somatization tests in a WebApp. Results: the Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicated good factor structures and measurement invariances of the scales because of participants´ sociodemographic characteristics and their structural equation model. Discussion: therefore, Women showed re-experimentation, numbing, anxiety, and somatization symptoms. Grieving or suffering a COVID-19 condition associated with generalized anxiety. People seeking psychological care reported somatization symptoms. Also, avoidance predicted symptoms of re-experimentation, and re-experimentation predicted health anxiety. Health anxiety predicted somatization, depression, and generalized anxiety, denoted by hyperarousal symptoms. Depression predicted numbing and hyperarousal symptoms. Conclusions: there are mental health risks in women, people with loved-one losses, those with a COVID-19 condition, or people seeking psychological care. Future research will show how early interventions interrupt mental health risks associated with the pandemic.

Diversos estudios han reportado que el cuidado informal de adultos mayores, personas con alguna enfermedad o discapacidad, e incluso el cuidado de menores de edad, tiene un impacto en la salud física y mental de las personas cuidadoras (PC). El objetivo del presente estudio fue identificar los riesgos a la salud mental de las PC, teniendo como referencia el concepto de “carga de cuidado” que alude a las demandas físicas, emocionales, sociales y/o económicas de las actividades de cuidado, y la tensión que estas producen. Los participantes respondieron a un tamizaje entre abril y diciembre de 2020, vía una plataforma electrónica, mismo que tuvo por objeto identificar y atender problemas de salud mental que pudieran presentarse o agravarse por la pandemia y las medidas de confinamiento adoptadas para mitigarla. Más de 51,000 personas reportaron ser PC de menores, adultos mayores y/o enfermos crónicos, lo que permitió identificar variaciones en la carga de cuidado considerando el impacto de distintos perfiles de cuidadores (según el tipo y número de personas dependientes). Las condiciones de salud mental evaluadas fueron estrés agudo, ansiedad generalizada, ansiedad por la salud y depresión. Los resultados confirman que las PC que cuidan más de un tipo de persona dependiente tienen mayores probabilidades de riesgo a desarrollar alguna de las condiciones de salud mental. Así mismo, quienes cuidaban alguna persona con enfermedad crónica fueron los más vulnerables, mientras que tener un menor de edad al cuidado actuó en alguna medida como un factor protector.

COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers (FHCW) are struggling to cope with challenges that threaten their wellbeing. We examine the frequency and predictors of the most frequent mental health problems (MHP) among FHCW during the first COVID-19 peak in Mexico, one of the most severely affected countries in terms of FHCW’s COVID-19 mortality. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between May 8 and August 18, 2020. A total of 47.5% of the sample (n = 2218) were FHCW. The most frequent MHP were insomnia, depression, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and health anxiety/somatization (whole sample: 45.7, 37.4, 33.9, and 21.3%; FHCW: 52.4, 43.4, 40.3 and 26.1, respectively). As compared to during the initial COVID-19 phase, depression and health anxiety/somatization symptoms as well as experiences of grieving due to COVID-19, personal COVID-19 status, and having relatives and close friends with COVID-19 were more frequent during the COVID-19 peak. Obesity, domestic violence, personal COVID-19 status, and grieving because of COVID-19 were included in regression models for main FHCW’s MHP during the COVID-19 peak. In conclusion, measures to decrease other country-level epidemics contributing to the likelihood of COVID-19 complications (obesity) and MHP (domestic violence) as well as FHCW´s probability of COVID-19 infection could safeguard not only their physical but also mental health.

The associated situations with the COVID19 pandemic promote mental health risks that researchers should attend to. This study aimed to show the level of the risk to mental health because of socioeconomic (sex, employment status, and age) or COVID19 situations: quarantine, symptoms or suspected COVID19, death of near people, physical or depression illness, or possible comorbidity. We worked with 15,335 Mexican, with a mean of 26 years old (SD=11.95), 52% single (8,001), 52% with a bachelor’s degree (7,910), 60% women (9,175), 44% in quarantine (6,769), 46% partially in quarantine (4,193), and 10% that they were not in quarantine (1,513). We used one causal correlational study throughout the WebApp application of the Questionnaire of Mental Health Screening in COVID19 (Alpha= 0.96; 62 of explained variance), programed by Linux®, PHP ®, HTML®, CSS ®, and JavaScript®), and constituted by four sections. The first section assessed COVID19 status. The second section assessed socioeconomic condition. The third section assessed mental health symptoms: acute stress, disengagement/anger, generalized anxiety/sadness, health anxiety, somatization, and avoidance. The fourth section assessed discrete nominal conditions: drug use and violence. Latent variables derivate of 104 iterations with 102 parameters (t[496] = 387077.84, p=.000), a CFI = 0.932, a TLI = 0.920, a RMSEA = 0.064 (0.063 – 0.064), and a SRMR = 0.047. Results showed that avoidance predicted acute stress. Acute stress predicted anxiety related to health. The anxiety related to health predicted generalized anxiety/sadness and somatization. And generalized anxiety/sadness predicted disengagement/anger in people. Thus, findings indicated that being women, unemployed, less than 29 or more than 65 years old, in quarantine, presenting COVID19 symptoms or suspected diagnosis, and reported comorbidity because of physical illness or depression was associated with the risk of mental health conditions. Next, studies should assess the impact of distance psychological interventions on the risk of developing acute and posttraumatic stress.

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the measurement of invariance by sex, age, and educational level of an online version of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale in a five-item version (GAD-5). Configural, metric, scalar, and strict invariance were evaluated using data from 79,473 respondents who answered a mental health questionnaire during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. The sex variable was classified as male or female; age was categorized as minors, youth, young adults, adults, and older adults; and educational level was divided into basic, upper secondary, higher, and graduate education. To test for configural invariance, confirmatory factor models were constructed. For metric invariance, equality restrictions were established for the factor loadings between the construct and its items; for scalar invariance, equality restrictions were established between the intercepts; strict variance implied the additional restriction of the residuals. Statistical analysis was performed in R software with the lavaan package. The results show that with respect to sex, age, and educational level, configural and metric measurement invariance was confirmed (ΔCFI < 0.002; ΔRMSEA < 0.015). However, with respect to scalar and strict invariance, the results showed significant differences regarding the fit model (ΔCFI > 0.002; ΔRMSEA > 0.015). We conclude that the GAD-5 presents configural and metric invariance for sex, age, and educational level, and scalar invariance for sex and age groups. However, the scale does not demonstrate strict invariance. We discuss the implications and suggest that this result could be related to the evaluation of sociodemographic variables.

Introduction: the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic promote mental health risks. Objective: the goal of the study was to assess the risk of developing mental health conditions as a result of COVID-19 situations: containment, symptoms or COVID-19 suspected, death of near people, use of alcohol, and violence. Method: it participated 8,348 Mexican, with a mean of 25 years old (SD =11.24), 50% single (4,133), 69% women (5,720), 47% in quarantine (3,948), 50% partially in quarantine (4,193), and 3% that they were not in quarantine (207). The kind proposed was a predictive correlational study using the WebApp application of the Questionnaire of Mental Health Screening in COVID-19 (Alpha= 0.96; 64 of explained variance) programed by Linux®, PHP ®, HTML®, CSS ®, and JavaScript®). Latent variables derivate of 124 iterations with 103 parameters (t[496] = 201,464, p=.000), a CFI = 0.921, a TLI = 0.908, a RMSEA = 0.067 (0.066 – 0.068), and a SRMR = 0.051. Results: results showed that avoidance predicted acute stress, this predicted anxiety related to health; anxiety related to health predicted generalized anxiety/sadness and somatization; and generalized anxiety/sadness predicted, disengagement/anger in people. Discussion and conclusions: containment, symptoms, or suspected COVID-19, explosive use of alcohol or reporting of emotional or physical violence, were associated with the risk of mental health conditions. Next studies should assess the impact of distance psychological interventions over the risk of developing acute and posttraumatic stress.

"Diversos estudios confirmaron que los fumadores con dependencia a la nicotina descuentan las recompensas demoradas más que los no fumadores. Este estudio evaluó la relación entre el descuento temporal y probabilístico de ganancias y pérdi - das, el efecto de magnitud y el abuso a la nicotina para probar la generalidad del descuento temporal. Veintisiete fumadores con abuso a la nicotina y 27 no fumadores realizaron una tarea de descuento temporal y probabilístico con un procedimiento de ajuste de la cantidad inmediata. Se usaron ganancias de $200, $3000 y pérdidas de $1500, con cinco demoras y cinco probabilidades en cinco ensayos. Se compararon las tasas de descuento y el área bajo la curva. Se encontró una relación entre el abuso de nicotina y el descuento temporal de reforzadores de mayor magnitud con las ganancias y entre el abuso de nicotina y el descuento probabilístico solamente con pérdidas. Los fumadores en menor grado no difirieron de los no fumadores en el descuento temporal de reforzadores de menor magnitud, ni de ganancias en términos de probabilidad. Los fumadores con abuso a la nicotina son parcialmente impacientes y evitan el riesgo pero prefieren elegir pérdidas inmediatas y seguras."