Publication:

Quality of life and psychological well-being of the working population during the lockdown and work-from-home phases of the COVID-19 pandemic

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has shocked the world with lockdown and quarantine procedures and working from home has brought an expeditious change in the daily life of people. The objective of this study was to assess the quality of life of working population during the lock down and work-from-home phases of the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Kerala.

Methods A cross-sectional study was done during June to July 2021 among 216 subjects who were employed and had work-from-home during the previous six months. A structured and pre-validated questionnaire including the 36-item short form quality of life (SF-36) was broadcasted through online platforms using google forms. The data was then analysed using the SPSS V.21.

Results The mean age of the study group was 37.8±10.1 years. Most of the subjects belonged to the educational sector 57 (26.4%) and IT sector 48 (22.2%). Bodily pain had the highest domain score (73.55±24.5). When compared to other scores, the mean physical functioning score (58.73±27.9), role limitation due to physical (54.86±37.1), and emotional difficulties (55.19±43.1) had lower scores. All domain scores were found to be higher for people over the age of 60. There was statistically significance between the mean values of social functioning (p=0.010), mental health (p=0.0001), role limitation due to emotional problem (p=0.003), vitality (p=0.0001) and general health (p=0.012) when compared with age groups.

Conclusions There was significant impairment in the quality of life and psychological aspects of the working population of Kerala during the work-from-home phase of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.