COVID-19, Mental Health, and Chronic Illnesses: A Syndemic Perspective

Overview

Journal Int J Environ Res Public Health

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Environmental Health
Public Health

Date 2023 Feb 25

PMID 36833955

Authors

Kiran Saqib

Afaf Saqib Qureshi

Zahid Ahmad Butt

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is an epidemiological and psychological crisis; what it does to the body is quite well known by now, and more research is underway, but the syndemic impact of COVID-19 and mental health on underlying chronic illnesses among the general population is not completely understood.

Methods: We carried out a literature review to identify the potential impact of COVID-19 and related mental health issues on underlying comorbidities that could affect the overall health of the population.

Results: Many available studies have highlighted the impact of COVID-19 on mental health only, but how complex their interaction is in patients with comorbidities and COVID-19, the absolute risks, and how they connect with the interrelated risks in the general population, remain unknown. The COVID-19 pandemic can be recognized as a syndemic due to; synergistic interactions among different diseases and other health conditions, increasing overall illness burden, emergence, spread, and interactions between infectious zoonotic diseases leading to new infectious zoonotic diseases; this is together with social and health interactions leading to increased risks in vulnerable populations and exacerbating clustering of multiple diseases.

Conclusion: There is a need to develop evidence to support appropriate and effective interventions for the overall improvement of health and psychosocial wellbeing of at-risk populations during this pandemic. The syndemic framework is an important framework that can be used to investigate and examine the potential benefits and impact of codesigning COVID-19/non-communicable diseases (NCDs)/mental health programming services which can tackle these epidemics concurrently.

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