Grant: Project Grant

-What will the research be about? Our plan is to investigate the following aspects of mental health for the overall population, particularly vulnerable groups, and low- and middle- income countries (LMICs): 1) how much mental health symptoms changed from before to during the pandemic. 2) how mental health symptoms changed across different times of the pandemic. 3) which interventions helped people maintain positive mental health during the pandemic. -What will be our outcomes? How mental health symptoms changed from before to during the pandemic and across different periods, and whether interventions to improve mental health conditions are helpful or not. -Who will be in the study? Study data from around the world that look at mental health condition of people affected by COVID-19. We searched 10 databases in English and Chinese. From April 2020 to August 2023, we reviewed over 161,000 papers. We found over 500 studies that reported how mental health symptoms changed across the pandemic and over 400 examining different mental health interventions. -What will the research team do? We will finish cleaning and updating our two systematic reviews. We will (1) update our comparison of mental health before and during COVID-19; (2) evaluate mental health changes across the pandemic; (3) use new evidence to see if mental health interventions are effective; (4) for Objective 1-3, conduct analyses for vulnerable groups and people in LMICs; and (5) conduct a meta-research review of COVID-19 mental health research to identify strengths and areas to improve in planning for ongoing surveillance and disaster preparedness. -How will people use the results? Our review will provide unique, critical results that will be used by scholars to better understand how people respond to infectious disease outbreak. It can also be used by governments and health care systems to develop mental health plans for future pandemic.