The influence of lifestyle, social and coping behaviours and movement
restriction onanxiety: A comparison between Malaysia, Iran and Pakistan
Abstract
Studies reported many changes in individuals’ lifestyle, social and
coping behaviours in the COVID-19 pandemic, yet little is known about
the impact of movement restrictions on individuals’ mental health. We
examined the effects of age, socioeconomic status (SES), and movement
restrictions alongside individual behaviours on mental health in
Malaysia, Iran and Pakistan. A total of 1030 respondents completed a
series of questions on lifestyle, social and coping behaviours. Results
showed that young adults were more anxious, lonelier, had lower social
satisfaction, higher fear of isolation, poorer eating habits and less
gratitude compared to middle-aged adults. The individual variance on
lifestyle, social and coping behaviours contributed 42.0% in predicting
anxiety and another 4.0% was from movement restrictions, age, and SES
in our model. This suggests that national guidelines can exert
detrimental effect on individual mental health with possible
wide-ranging implications on citizens’ mental health for specific age
groups.