The prevalence rate and demographic correlates of perceived stress in Alberta during the COVID-19 pandemic: A one-week cross-sectional study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to have an unprecedented global effect on health and daily life, with many countries struggling to adapt to the adverse pandemic impact. While strict public health measures are necessary to slow the virus’ spread, these measures may adversely affect individual mental health and wellbeing. Texting-based programs offer organizations a feasible and cost-effective option to deliver mental health supports and to collect population-level data. This study reports on the prevalence rate and demographic correlates of perceived stress on the one-week data obtained from Text4Hope enrollees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This was a cross-sectional study that used the Perceived Stress Scale to determine the one-week prevalence for perceived stress in Alberta. Univariate and binomial logistic regression analysis were used to determine the demographic correlates (i.e., gender, age, ethnicity, educational attainment, employment status, relationship status, and housing status) of moderate/high perceived stress. Results One week after the program launch, 32,805 individuals were enrolled. 6,041 enrollees completed the baseline survey (18.4% response rate). 84.7% of respondents reported moderate/high stress. All demographic variables, except ethnicity, were significantly associated with moderate/high stress (p < 0.001). Females were 1.5 times more likely to report moderate/high stress (95% CI = 1.2–1.9) than males. Compared to respondents in the 26–40 years, 41–60 years, and > 60 years of age categories, those ≤ 25 years of age were 1.9 (95% CI = 1.1–3.4), 3.4 (95% CI = 1.9–6.3), and 5.3 (95% CI = 2.8–10.0) times more likely to report moderate/high stress, respectively. Unemployed individuals were 2.5 times more likely to report moderate/high stress (95% CI = 1.8–3.6) than employed individuals. Retirees were 1.6 times less likely to report moderate/high stress (95% CI = 1.1–2.2) than employed respondents. Respondents renting a home were 1.7 times more likely to report moderate/high stress (95% CI = 1.3–2.1) than home owners. Conclusion Prevalence rate for perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic is very high in Alberta, signaling detrimental pandemic impacts on mental health. Our demographic correlates of perceived stress align with research results from other jurisdictions. Trail registration: The study was approved by the University of Alberta Human Research Ethics Board (Pro00086163).
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".