SWS: Hunger, pay cuts factored in stress among Filipinos amid COVID-19
MANILA, Philippines — A large majority of Filipinos have been found to be dealing with significant stress amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, according to the results of a Social Weather Stations survey released Friday.
Based on a mobile phone survey conducted between May 4 to 10, the COVID-19 crisis brought "great stress" to 55% of working-age Filipinos and "much stress" to another 34%.
The remaining 11% felt either little or no stress.
A total of 68% who came from families that experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months were among the respondents who answered feeling great stress.
The SWS said that involuntary hunger reported by respondents was at a new high of 16.7% of families (estimated 4.2 million) in May 2020, double the 8.8% (estimated 2.1 million) just months back in December 2019.
The hunger figure also marks the highest since an SWS mobile phone survey in September 2014 at 22% (4.8 million).
Stress was also found higher among the newly-unemployed and employees whose incomes were suddenly slashed.
“The proportion of those with great stress due to the COVID-19 crisis was at 58% among those who have a job but are not receiving pay, and 57% among those who currently do not have a job but used to have one, compared to 52% among those who have jobs and are receiving full pay, and 51% among those who never had a job.”
The proportion of great stress was likewise seen in those with less education, particularly 59% among non-elementary graduates, 58% among those who reached some high school and 56% among junior high school graduates.
This was in comparison to 52% who had reached some level of college as well as college graduates.
Great stress was also reported significantly higher in the Visayas at 63%, compared to 58% in Metro Manila, 51% in the remainder of Luzon and 55% in Mindanao.
Populations in areas under enhanced community quarantine and general community quarantine were said to be equally stressed at 55% each in both areas.
A total of 4,010 working-age Filipinos participated nationwide in the SWS survey through mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing, including 294 in Metro Manila, 1,645 in the rest of Luzon, 792 in the Visayas and 1,279 in Mindanao.
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