Browsing by Author "Stanojevic Ristic, Zorica (57199211276)"

Women were more affected than men during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate COVID-19-related stress response in adult women and its association with the relevant socioeconomic, lifestyle and COVID-19-related factors. This research was carried out in eight randomly chosen cities from September 2020 to October 2021. To examine stress, we distributed the COVID Stress Scales (CSS) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Women also fulfilled a general socio-epidemiologic questionnaire. The study included 1,264 women. Most women were healthy, highly educated, employed, married, nonsmokers who consumed alcohol. The average total CSS score suggested a relatively low COVID-19 related stress), while 1.7% of women had CSS ≥ 100. The mean PSS was around the mid-point value of the scale. Older women, who were not in a relationship, didn’t smoke, didn’t drink alcohol, but used immune boosters, had chronic illnesses and reported losing money during the pandemic had higher CSS scores. A higher level of stress was also experienced by women exposed to the intense reporting about COVID-19, had contact with COVID-19 positive people or took care of COVID-19 positive family members. In this sample of predominantly highly educated women few women experienced very high stress level, probably due to the study timing (after the initial wave) when the pandemic saw attenuated stress levels. To relieve women from stress, structural organization and planning in terms of health care delivery, offsetting economic losses, controlled information dissemination and psychological support for women are needed. © 2024 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Women were more affected than men during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate COVID-19-related stress response in adult women and its association with the relevant socioeconomic, lifestyle and COVID-19-related factors. This research was carried out in eight randomly chosen cities from September 2020 to October 2021. To examine stress, we distributed the COVID Stress Scales (CSS) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Women also fulfilled a general socio-epidemiologic questionnaire. The study included 1,264 women. Most women were healthy, highly educated, employed, married, nonsmokers who consumed alcohol. The average total CSS score suggested a relatively low COVID-19 related stress), while 1.7% of women had CSS ≥ 100. The mean PSS was around the mid-point value of the scale. Older women, who were not in a relationship, didn’t smoke, didn’t drink alcohol, but used immune boosters, had chronic illnesses and reported losing money during the pandemic had higher CSS scores. A higher level of stress was also experienced by women exposed to the intense reporting about COVID-19, had contact with COVID-19 positive people or took care of COVID-19 positive family members. In this sample of predominantly highly educated women few women experienced very high stress level, probably due to the study timing (after the initial wave) when the pandemic saw attenuated stress levels. To relieve women from stress, structural organization and planning in terms of health care delivery, offsetting economic losses, controlled information dissemination and psychological support for women are needed. © 2024 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Background: Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were recommended to implement new health behaviors into their daily routines to prevent the viral spread. The aim of this study was to investigate whether specific health behaviors, such as wearing face masks, taking immunity boosters and visiting risky places were associated with a higher level of stress due to COVID-19 in the general adult population. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted from September 1, 2020 to October 1, 2021 in eight randomly chosen cities of two Serbian speaking countries (Republic of Serbia and Republic of Srpska - Bosnia and Herzegovina). Participants filled a socio-epidemiologic questionnaire, COVID Stress Scales (CSS) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Results: The study included 2,301 participants with an average age of 36.72 ± 13.82 years of whom 54.9% were female (p = 0.001). Most participants were healthy, highly educated, employed, married, non-smokers and consumed alcohol. The mean total CSS score was 32.7 ± 23.8 out of 144, suggesting a relatively low stress due to COVID-19. The mean PSS was 19.43 ± 5.05 out of 40 indicating slightly increased level of general stress. Participants who reported higher CSS scores were more likely to wear face masks, use immunity boosters, go to cafes and clubs, have chronic illnesses, have suspicious, but not proven contact with COVID-19 positive people, and use multiple sources of information about COVID-19. Conclusion: Few participants experienced high levels of stress due to COVID-19. People who used face masks, immunity boosters and visited risky places reported a higher level of stress during the pandemic. © The Author(s) 2025.