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

Kiran Saqib, Afaf Saqib Qureshi and Zahid Ahmad Butt ()
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Kiran Saqib: School of Public health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Afaf Saqib Qureshi: Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Zahid Ahmad Butt: School of Public health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-13

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.

Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; mental health; chronic diseases; syndemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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