Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic on Mental Well-being of the People of Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the effects of covid-19 pandemic on mental well-being of the people of Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. The Purposes of the study are to identify if financial constraints, post-traumatic stress and anxiety will be effects of COVID-19 pandemic on mental well-being of the people of Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. A descriptive research design of survey type was employed for this study. The population for this study comprised of all residents within the study area. A researcher structured questionnaire of likert scale rating form was used to collect information for the study.

The instrument was validated by three experts in the department of community health science including the researcher’s supervisor their suggestions and modifications were effected before the final instrument was produced. The 10% of the questionnaire was first pretested through split-half method by distributing the questionnaire to the people of Ilorin West LGA of Kwara State, Nigeria who are not going to be part of the study. After which crobach alpha coefficient method was used to calculate the reliability figure of 0.60r. The instrument was administered by the researcher and three trained research assistants. The data collected was analyzed using The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. Both descriptive and inferential statistics of frequency count and percentage were used for this study. Chi-square was used to test the null-hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Conclusion: The findings from this study revealed that:

1. Financial constraints is one of the significant effects of covid-19 pandemic on mental well-being of the people of Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria with the scale shown (X2 = 131.621, df=9 P-value(0.0431)< 0.05), since the P-Value is less than 0.05 level of significance.

2. Post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the significant effects of covid-19 pandemic on mental well-being of the people of Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria with the scale of revealed (X2 = 322.673, df=9, P-value(0.020)< 0.05), since the Pvalue is less than 0.05 level of significance

3. Anxiety is also one of the significant effects of covid-19 pandemic on mental welling being of the people of Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria with the scale of revealed (X2 = 152.812, df=9, P-value(0.322)> 0.05), since the P-value is less than 0.05 level of significance. The study concluded that financial constraint, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety are significant effects of COVID-19 pandemic on mental well-being of the people in Ilorin West LGA of Kwara State, Nigeria, while the study recommended among others that the Local, State and Federal Ministry of Health should make use of the mass and social media to disseminate information on COVID-19 pandemic and possible preventive measure at individual level. Government should create COVID-19 pandemic awareness on the counseling centers so as to counsel people as need arises.

Keywords: Covid-19; Pandemic; Effect; Mental Well-being