SWS: 86% of Pinoys stressed due to COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — As the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continues to increase, the number of Filipinos stressed by the crisis remains high, a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.

The mobile survey conducted from July 3 to 6 with the results released yesterday showed that the pandemic brought stress to 86 percent of Filipinos, three points lower than the 89 percent obtained in a similar survey in May.

Fifty-one percent said the COVID crisis brought them great stress, while 35 percent said it caused them much stress.

Compared to May, those with great stress fell slightly from 55 percent, while those with much stress hardly change from 34 percent.

Fourteen percent said they felt little or no stress at all, up from the 11 percent in May.

According to SWS, stress is higher among families that experienced involuntary hunger and joblessness. The survey showed that 62 percent of those who experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months suffered from great stress, compared to 48 percent who did not experience it.

Previous survey results showed that 20.9 percent of families or an estimated 5.2 million experienced involuntary hunger in July, up from 16.7 percent or 4.2 million families in May.

In terms of employment, 55 percent of those who do not have a job experienced great stress, compared with 46 percent of those who have jobs. Those with great stress were highest in Metro Manila and the Visayas at 56 percent, followed by the rest of Luzon with 49 percent and Mindanao at 46 percent.

Compared to May, those with great stress declined from 63 percent in the Visayas and 55 percent in Mindanao. It hardly changed from 58 percent in Metro Manila and 51 percent in the rest of Luzon.

The survey had 1,555 respondents and has an error margin of +/- two percent for national scores. It was conducted using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing.