Authors: Aanchal Singhal, Prateek Malhotra, Anandhi Ramachandran, Ruby Chauhan
Purpose: To study the impact of social media during time of COVID induced lockdown on the mental well-being of residents of Delhi-NCR. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 405 residents of Delhi-NCR. Data on socio- demographic profile, social media exposure and anxiety was collected using self-administered pre validated questionnaire. To assess the association between categorical values and p value Chi square test was used with p value of 0.05 considered statistically significant. Findings: This study included 405 residents from Delhi-NCR comprising of 59.5?males and 40.5 % males. Participants who are engaged in devoting more than 3 hour on social media and use it more frequently are suffering from moderate-severe anxiety and is found to be statically significant. Majority of the participants who felt negative (N= 49, 30.8%) about the social media coverage of Covid-19 suffered from anxiety as compared to those who felt positive (N=33, 15.6%). Originality: It is a piece of Original research and suggest upon Government taking interventional steps and attention to combat anxiety through continuous health promotion activities related to COVID, serious actions against spread of misinformation, dedicated online counseling tele-centers. Keywords: Lockdown, Mental health impact, Social media, Social networking.
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