MANILA, Philippines — Nearly 90 percent of Filipinos said they have experienced stress because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed on Saturday.
In a national mobile phone poll conducted from July 3 to July 6, SWS said 51 percent Filipinos experienced “great stress” due to the COVID-19 crisis while 35 percent experienced “much stress” because of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, only 14 percent of Filipinos said they felt little or no stress from the health crisis which has so far infected more than 76,000 people nationwide.
The pollster said the July 2020 result showed a decrease from the May 2020 result which recorded 89 percent Filipinos who said they were stressed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The poll body used interviews from 1,555 Filipinos aged 18 years old and above nationwide. Of the number, 306 were from the National Capital Region, 451 from Balance Luzon or outside of Metro Manila, 388 from Visayas, and 410 from Mindanao.
The survey also used sampling error margins ±2% for national percentages, ±6% for Metro Manila, ±5 for Balance Luzon, ±5% for the Visayas, and ±5% for Mindanao.
SWS used the following questions for the survey: “Gaano kalaki ang stress na idinudulot ng krisis sa COVID-19 sa inyong buhay ngayon? Ang stress bang idinudulot nito ay… Napakalaki, Medyo malaki, Maliit, Halos wala? (How much stress did the COVID-19 crisis cause in your life right now? Is the stress caused by this… Great, Much, A little, None?)”
To date, the coronavirus disease has infected 76,444 patients in the Philippines. Of the number, 24,502 have recovered while 1,879 have died.