Data exploration
The dataset collected in the first POSTCOVID-AI study contains a wide range of variables. One of the most important data is the mood of the participants. Thus, after preprocessing the data from the daily surveys where participants reported their mood, we identified 57 participants with sufficient responses, at least 80% of the total number of the 180 responses that could be recorded over the month-long study, to extract indices of psychological well-being. Of these 57 participants, 30 were male (53%) and 27 were female (47%). The average age of the participants was 44 years with a standard deviation (s.d.) of approximately 17 years. The youngest participant was 18 years old and the oldest was 70 years old.
With regard to the psychological characteristics of the participants, based on the questionnaires they filled out at the beginning of the study, we can compare the results obtained with the mean scores of the general pre-pandemic population reported in other studies, in terms of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Specifically, the mean score obtained by our participants in the anxiety questionnaire used (Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale - 7) was 5.95 (s.d. = 4.85), which corresponds to a mild level of anxiety, while the mean of the general population in Spain before the pandemic was 3.54 (s.d. = 3.32). In the depression questionnaire (Patient Health Questionnaire - 9), our participants scored a mean of 6.86 (s.d. = 4.72), which corresponds to a mild level, in this case of depression. The mean of the general population before the pandemic corresponded to a value of 2.91 (s.d. = 3.52).
These data indicate that our participants show slightly higher levels of both anxiety and depression compared to those obtained in the general population in other studies before the pandemic. Moreover, these results align with those obtained in another study with almost 2000 participants conducted during the pandemic in Spain, where a mean GAD-7 score of 5.86 (s.d. = 5.24) and a PHQ-9 score of 6.50 (s.d. = 5.65) were obtained. While this gives us confidence in the validity of the data and highlights once again the mental health effects of the pandemic that have been reported in numerous studies, one of our group's goals is to conduct further studies to validate these findings.