The author of a survey of Huron and Perth county residents on how they've been affected by COVID-19 says one of the things he wanted to look at was the impact on the mental health of males versus females by the pandemic.
Guelph University Assistant Professor, Dr. Leith Deacon, says they received about 3,600 completed surveys and they asked about a number of factors that could impact mental health like personal finances, or anxiety levels around being isolated from family or friends.
He says what they found was that women are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic for a number of reasons.
"One is females tend to be in more service-oriented jobs and those are the jobs that have been, obviously, very impacted by this. Females also tend to take a larger burden of care for their children and just day-to-day living at home," said Dr. Deacon.
He adds their survey indicated that during pre-COVID, roughly 86% of females self-assessed as either good or excellent.
"But what we've seen is, pre-COVID, roughly 86 percent of females self-assessed as either good or excellent and we have seen nearly a 30% drop in that self-assessment since the start of the pandemic," added Dr. Deacon.
Conversely, 22% of males said they had experienced a drop in their mental health since the pandemic.
Dr. Deacan presented his report on the survey to Huron County council at their last meeting in December.
