Assessment of depression, anxiety, stress, alcohol dependence, and resilience in migrant workers during COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, migrant workers in India have gone through many hardships. After the lockdown, many construction sites, factories, and workplaces shut down, and innumerable migrant workers faced a loss of income, shortage of food, and uncertain future. This massive change in their living conditions made them vulnerable to psychological problems.

Aim: To screen for depression, anxiety, stress, alcohol dependence, and resilience in migrant workers during the COVID-19 crisis.

Materials and methods: Migrant workers at seven camps in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, Maharashtra, were surveyed with the help of the Depression Anxiety Stress (DASS-21) Scale to assess depression, anxiety, and stress levels, AUDIT C for assessing alcohol use disorders, and Connor-Davidson resilience scale short form (CD RISC) for assessing resilience.

Results: A total of 1053 migrant workers were surveyed. It showed that 57.54% of workers had depressive symptoms, 64.96% had anxiety symptoms, and 39.32% had subjective stress. Female migrant workers had more severe depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms as compared to males while male workers were more at risk of alcohol use disorder as compared to females. Migrants without family had more symptoms of severe depression and alcohol use disorder as compared to those with family. Regression analysis showed that levels of anxiety were independently associated with female gender, unmarried status, stress, depression, and alcohol use disorder while resilience negatively predicted anxiety in these migrant workers.

Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, migrant workers were at risk of depression, anxiety, stress, and alcohol use disorder. Females and migrants without families came out to be more vulnerable to these psychological problems. Hence during the pandemic situation, identifying this vulnerable population and special preventive or therapeutic programs for them can be of crucial importance.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; immigrant workers; lockdown; psychological problems.