Mental health worsened during pandemic for 62% of Brazilian women, says study – 10/30/2021

The pandemic has had numerous impacts on the health of Brazilians, both physically and emotionally. Regarding the second item, women say they are affected more than men.

According to a study conducted by the FSB Institute at the request of the insurance company SulAmérica, 62% of Brazilian women say that their emotional health worsened or worsened significantly during this period. For men, the index doesn’t halve: 43% said they were more shaky.

Concern on this topic also prevails among the female population. Among them, 63% said they were concerned about emotional health. Among men, the rate is 47%.

The survey was conducted in September with 2,100 interviews with Brazilians aged 18 and over and with representatives from 26 states and the Federal District.

else The study, released in 2020 by People Platform, showed that while 33% of men are anxious, nearly half of women say they feel this way (49%). Anxiety is accompanied by other problems: insomnia, which is present in the daily life of 33% of women compared to 19% of men; MigraineIt is a symptom of 18% of women and only 9% of men; and overeating, which occurs in 42% of women and 36% of men.

Among the explanations for psychological overload are increased commitments to home care during quarantine, both in relation to the home and family health and well-being.

“Even among women who live in homes where tasks are divided in the same way as tasks are divided, this division usually refers more to the implementation of activities rather than to management. In other words, the act of thinking, planning and taking action is in the hands of the women,” says the psychologist and master in Cognitive Psychology from UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina) Nina Taboada *.

“In a pandemic scenario, women ended up taking care of people’s health in the home, planning food, and even this very division of tasks,” she says.

This trend is not limited to Brazil. Research conducted by the University of Nottingham and King’s College in 2020،, both from the United Kingdom, have shown that British women have higher levels of stress and worry In the health crisis of men.

According to Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Nottingham, Kavita Vidhara, who coordinated the research, different socially required jobs led women to develop more mental problems.

“The fact that they have higher levels of stress may be related to ‘manipulation’ to reconcile their children’s education with work, as well as having other pressures, demands and fears,” Vidhara said at the time.

* Interview published in the article “In this pandemic, women suffer more anxiety, insomnia, and migraines than men”, on September 24, 2020.