The association between uncertainty and mental health: a scoping review of the quantitative literature

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flow chart of the search strategy and results.

Table 1. Descriptive information on studies.

Variable	Number of studies	Percentage of studies (N = 101)
Study type
Primary published study	92	91%
Review paper	6	6%
Secondary data analysis	2	2%
Theoretical paper, commentary	1	1%
Study design
Cross-sectional	67	67%
Longitudinal/ prospective	14	14%
Psychometric assessment (cross-sectional)	8	8%
Review paper	6	6%
Intervention study	2	2%
Experimental study	2	2%
Case-control study	1	1%
Study discipline
Medicine, nursing	60	59%
Medicine, nursing and psychology	23	23%
Psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience	11	11%
Public health, psychology, medicine, nursing	4	4%
Social sciences, psychology, medicine, nursing	3	3%

Figure 2. Geographical map visualizing the number of studies conducted in each country according to colour (i.e., darker colour = more studies conducted in that country).

Table 2. Mental health and psychosocial outcomes investigated across studies.

Variable	Number of studies	Percentage of outcomes (N = 134)
Depression	31	23%
Anxiety	26	19%
Psychological distress	20	15%
PTSD/post-traumatic symptoms	14	10%
Stress	13	10%
Mood states/negative affect	8	6%
Psychosocial adjustment/adaptation	5	4%
Emotional well-being/affective health	5	4%
Emotional exhaustion/burnout	4	3%
Fatigue	3	2%
Psychosomatic complaints	1	1%
Psychological well-being	1	1%
Insomnia	1	1%
Dysphoria	1	1%
Hopelessness	1	1%

Note. A higher number of outcomes than studies is reported as some studies had more than one mental health or psychosocial outcome.