Impacts of Confinement on Mental Health and Health Behaviours of Individuals with Multimorbidity during Covid-19 Pandemic

Background: Confinement and its possible impact on lifestyle make people with multimorbidity more vulnerable to modifications of their mental health and health behaviours that could persist beyond confinement.Objective: To understand the mental health status and health behaviour modifications among individuals with multimorbidity during and post COVID-19 confinement.Methods: Longitudinal multinational cohort study consisting of two online questionnaires with its first wave taken place during the first COVID-19 confinement (May 2020) and its second wave post-deconfinement (November 2020). Including 559 (wave 1) and 144 (wave 2) participants with an average age of 34.30±12.35 and 36.21±13.07 years old. Mostly females living in Canada, France, India and Lebanon. Results: The prevalence of multimorbidity was 27.68%. During confinement, people with multimorbidity were 2 to 3 times more likely to experience psychological distress, depressive symptoms, increased stress or isolation, and the prevalence of stress and psychological distress increased post-deconfinement. Health behaviours were also modified during confinement with people with multimorbidity being more likely to reduce their physical activity and increased their fruit and vegetable consumption. Post-deconfinement, people with multimorbidity had increased sleep problems. Also, regardless of multimorbidity status, sexual desire continuously decreased post-deconfinement. Conclusion: Mental health and health behaviours modifications occurred during the COVID-19 confinement period and people with multimorbidity were more severely impacted on these two outcomes than those without multimorbidity, indicating a need for a more adapted approach of care to future confinement periods or pandemic for this population.