Impact of Mass Media on Quality of Life during Covid-19 Pandemic among Indian Population

Abstract

Background: With the course of the COVID-19 outbreak, it has fabricated a health crisis globally. At this time mass media plays an important role by covering the news on COVID-19 and diverse steps taken by the Indian government to combat with this crisis, which creates a remarkable effect on the daily life of citizens that is accountable for giving rise to threat and disruption in prolongation of life among Indian population. The present study aims to evaluate the mass media impact on Quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic among the Indian population. Methods: To carry out this study, an online questionnaire was prepared on Google forms and distributed among the Indian population. The survey was conducted from 15th July to 30th July 2020. A total of 320 sample responses were received and data were analyzed by using SPSS software. A correlation has been used to find out the association between mass media and domains of Quality of Life (Psychological, Physical, Environmental, and Social) during COVID-19. Result: We found a significant positive statistical correlation at 0.01 level between hours spent for COVID – 19 news on the view of mass media with anxiety and nervousness 0.54, with worry 0.41 and with Quality of life 0.48. Conclusion: This study found a positive association between mass media and the Psychological domain of Quality of life and on overall Quality of life among the Indian population during COVID-19. However, it needs to study further to identify the impact of mass media on a particular age group so that adequate health intervention can be planned.