El Frenn Yara, Hallit Souheil, Obeid Sahar, Soufia Michel
School of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, P.O. Box 446, Jounieh, Lebanon.
Psychology Department, College of Humanities, Effat University, Jeddah, 21478 Saudi Arabia.
Curr Psychol. 2022 May 13:1-13. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-03148-1.
The main objectives were to associate between social media news consumption during these unstable times and depression, as well as suicidal ideation among a sample of Lebanese adults, in addition to associate between fear of Covid-19, depression and suicidal ideation. Secondary objectives aimed to check the mediating effect of depression in the association between time spent on social media to get the news and the presence of suicidal ideation. This is a cross-sectional study executed between April and May 2021. It involved 402 Lebanese citizens aged 18 years and above, selected randomly from all Lebanese districts. Having cancer (Beta = 0.20) or lung disease (Beta = 0.27), more fear of COVID-19 (Beta = 0.16), a higher time spent on social media for news (Beta = 0.13) and a higher household crowding index (Beta = 0.29) were significantly associated with more depression, whereas having a pet in the house (Beta = -0.13) and working in the medical field (Beta = -0.17) were significantly associated with less depression. Higher depression (aOR = 1.19) was significantly associated with higher odds of having suicidal ideation, whereas more fear of COVID-19 (aOR = 0.84) and older age (aOR = 0.96) were significantly associated with less odds of having suicidal ideation. Depression did not mediate the association between time spent on social media to get the news and suicidal ideation. This study showed that more time spent on social media reading the news is associated with higher depression but not suicidal ideation. Fear of Covid-19 is associated with more depression, but less suicidal ideation. Further studies are needed to identify the causality between social media news consumption, depression and suicidal ideation. Moreover, awareness campaigns should be organized to teach people how to consume social media news in a responsible way, without letting it affect their emotions directly, which may cause psychological disorders.
主要目标是研究在这些不稳定时期社交媒体新闻消费与黎巴嫩成年人样本中的抑郁以及自杀意念之间的关联，此外还要研究对新冠病毒的恐惧、抑郁和自杀意念之间的关联。次要目标旨在检验抑郁在花时间浏览社交媒体新闻与存在自杀意念之间的关联中所起的中介作用。这是一项于2021年4月至5月进行的横断面研究。研究对象为402名18岁及以上的黎巴嫩公民，从黎巴嫩所有地区随机选取。患有癌症（β=0.20）或肺部疾病（β=0.27）、对新冠病毒的恐惧程度更高（β=0.16）、花更多时间在社交媒体上获取新闻（β=0.13）以及家庭拥挤指数更高（β=0.29）与更多抑郁显著相关，而家中养宠物（β=-0.13）和从事医疗行业（β=-0.17）与较少抑郁显著相关。更高的抑郁水平（调整后比值比=1.19）与更高的自杀意念几率显著相关，而对新冠病毒的恐惧程度更高（调整后比值比=0.84）和年龄更大（调整后比值比=0.96）与更低的自杀意念几率显著相关。抑郁并未在花时间浏览社交媒体新闻与自杀意念之间的关联中起中介作用。这项研究表明，花更多时间在社交媒体上阅读新闻与更高的抑郁水平相关，但与自杀意念无关。对新冠病毒的恐惧与更多抑郁相关，但与更少自杀意念相关。需要进一步研究以确定社交媒体新闻消费、抑郁和自杀意念之间的因果关系。此外，应组织宣传活动，教导人们如何以负责任的方式消费社交媒体新闻，不让其直接影响情绪，以免引发心理障碍。
