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©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 6, 2022; 10(25): 8880-8892
Published online Sep 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i25.8880
Published online Sep 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i25.8880
Mental health of the Slovak population during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey
Maria Kralova, Lubomira Izakova, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine Comenius University and University Hospital Bratislava, Bratislava 81369, Slovakia
Alexandra Brazinova, Veronika Sivcova, Institute of Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine Comenius University Bratislava, Bratislava 81372, Slovakia
Author contributions: Kralova M, Brazinova A, and Izakova L designed the research, interpreted the research findings, and wrote the manuscript; Brazinova A analyzed the data; Sivcova V constructed and edited the tables and figures, and edited the references of the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the internal ethical committee of the non-governmental organization League for Mental Health.
Informed consent statement: This is an observational study not requiring the signed informed consent form–the study works with anonymous data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lubomira Izakova, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine Comenius University and University Hospital Bratislava, Mickiewiczova 13, Bratislava 81369, Slovakia. lubomira.izakova@gmail.com
Received: March 31, 2022
Peer-review started: March 31, 2022
First decision: May 11, 2022
Revised: June 6, 2022
Accepted: August 1, 2022
Article in press: August 1, 2022
Published online: September 6, 2022
Processing time: 147 Days and 16.3 Hours
Peer-review started: March 31, 2022
First decision: May 11, 2022
Revised: June 6, 2022
Accepted: August 1, 2022
Article in press: August 1, 2022
Published online: September 6, 2022
Processing time: 147 Days and 16.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: We have implemented a survey to assess anxiety and depressive symptoms by the general anxiety disorder and the patient health questionnaire instruments in the Slovak Republic during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Anxiety was present in 19.32% and depression in 24.65% of the population. Both disorders were more common in females. Our results indicate that anxiety and depressive symptoms were significantly associated with younger age, female sex, and lower than high school education. This is the first such survey of the population’s mental health in the Slovak Republic and the findings are important for the planning and improvement of mental health services in the country.