Geographic Disparities in Stress Levels during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kuwait

Abstract

This study investigates the geographic disparities in stress levels among residents in Kuwait’s urban area using a geographic information system. The sample consisted of 2100 participants, 53.2% of whom were female, and 46.8% of whom were male. The participants were geocoded based on their district’s locations. In this study, the percentage of those who experienced stress during the coronavirus-2019 pandemic was generally high for the group of all participants; however, the younger population tended to have higher rates of stress. The geographic pattern of higher stress areas for all participants tended to be close to Kuwait City, while the southern districts appeared to have lower percentages. Geographically weighted regression was used to measure the spatial relationship between the rates of stress and educational levels. Those with higher educational levels tended to be spatially and statistically associated with higher rates of stress, while those with lower educational levels had lower rates of stress. In conclusion, studying stress and other mental health problems from a geographic perspective can help us improve our understanding of this complex mental health issue and the geographic impact on it.

Keywords:

• GIS
• stress
• mental health
• COVID-19
• pandemic