Effects of Home Confinement for COVID-19 on the Psychological Health and the Social Lifestyles of the People of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In March 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the coronavirus has become a global pandemic that may cause death by infection. Consequently, radical measures were taken to limit the spread of this deadly virus. Public health authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, mandated total confinement to limit the spread of the virus. These measures have brought about a fundamental change in people’s daily lifestyles, especially their social lives. Consequently, home confinement has had impacts on psychological health as well. This study aims to evaluate the effects of home confinement on the people of various regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; we opted for a quantitative study design using an anonymous online survey. A total of 3589 subjects completed the “Scale of Social Lifestyle and Psychological Health for the COVID-19 Pandemic”, which is a survey formulated for the purposes of this research. Results showed that confinement has changed the social lifestyles of the people in KSA, particularly for women and for people aged 30 to 50 years. For psychological health, statistically significant increases were observed in the levels of anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, and somatic symptoms, during quarantine. In conclusion, home confinement caused a radical change in the social lifestyles of the citizens of Saudi Arabia. Women, married people and those aged more than 50 years are more affected than others, the psychological impact was moderate to severe in terms of the assessed demographic variables.