American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Improving Women's Mental Health during a Pandemic
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 16,
no. 2, April 2024
(pp. 422–55)
Abstract
This paper evaluates a randomized, over-the-phone counseling intervention aimed at mitigating the mental health impact of COVID-19 on a sample of 2,402 women across 357 villages in Bangladesh. We find that the provision of two hours of mental support plus information on COVID-19 improves mental health ten months postintervention, leading to reductions of 20 percent in the prevalence of moderate and severe stress and 33 percent in depression. Our results suggest that this type of low-cost intervention ($14 per person) can be effective in providing rapid psychological support to vulnerable groups in times of crises.Citation
Vlassopoulos, Michael, Abu Siddique, Tabassum Rahman, Debayan Pakrashi, Asad Islam, and Firoz Ahmed. 2024. "Improving Women's Mental Health during a Pandemic." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16 (2): 422–55. DOI: 10.1257/app.20210655Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I12 Health Behavior
- I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
- I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
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