SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The quote attribution in second paragraph, first sentence of release should read: Dr. E Hanh Le (instead of Dr. E Hahn Lee).
The corrected release reads:
HEALTHLINE LAUNCHES MENTAL HEALTH INDEX TO ADDRESS EMOTIONAL ISSUES RELATED TO COVID-19
Healthline.com, the nation’s No. 1 health-information website, today announced the launch of the Healthline Mental Health Index, a project in which the company is regularly surveying its audience about the emotional health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and incorporating the results with surveys of the general U.S. population via YouGov. Healthline also announced the Healthline Mental Health Hub, a one-stop source for trusted information about coping with issues surrounding COVID-19.
“Millions of people turn to Healthline every day for information about the coronavirus and how to deal with the resulting issues of anxiety and depression,” said Dr. E Hanh Le, a former family physician who leads Healthline’s Medical Affairs team. “It’s critical to track the emotional well-being of Americans during this crisis. The nation needs to address all the invisible concerns caused by the pandemic.”
Healthline launched its survey among its readers on March 27. The survey included the PHQ-4 scale, which is a validated clinical scale used to identify signs of anxiety and depression in the general population. The same questions were included in YouGov’s COVID-19 tracker conducted among the general U.S. population starting April 2.
The findings include:
- Three out of five Americans remain afraid of contracting the virus based on the sixth wave of YouGov’s tracker. This figure has remained stable over the past month
- Fear and anxiety among men is on the rise: from the survey wave ending April 20, 55% of men reported fear of contracting the virus compared with 50% two weeks earlier; anxiety among men rose from 15% to 22% in the same time period as measured by the PHQ-4 scale.
- In comparison, 64% of women reported fear of contracting the virus, down from 70% two weeks ago. Anxiety among women also declined from 34% to 27% in the same time period.
- 25% of Americans are looking for information about how to deal with anxiety and stress and 21% want help for coping with isolation.
- Close to two out of five Healthline readers may be experiencing moderate to severe depression.
- 22% of Healthline readers are concerned they have COVID-19 symptoms, vs. 4% of the general population.
- Hispanics express more fear and anxiety than other ethnic groups. According to the data collected by YouGov, the percentage who are fearful of contracting the virus has risen from 57% two weeks ago to 64% in the survey wave ending April 20.
Looking at the gap between people’s health questions and the topics they find most difficult to find answers to shows three concerns:
- Of the 38% of Americans who say they want to understand how seriously they could get sick if they contracted the virus: 60% find this information difficult to find
- Of the 19% who report looking for information on how to care for aging parents or children, 59% find this information difficult to find
- Of the 14% who say they don’t know who to trust for their health questions at this time, 58% find it a challenge
“Worldwide, people are concerned and are uncertain where to turn for trusted information during this unprecedented time,” said Healthline Media CEO David Kopp. “At Healthline, nothing is more important to us than meeting this need. Healthline's mission is to be your trusted ally as we make the world stronger and healthier.”
To meet the need, Healthline Media already has published more than 300 evidence-based and medically-vetted articles about COVID-19 on its flagship brand Healthline.com and sister sites MedicalNewsToday.com and Greatist.com. The company will continue publishing at this pace for the duration of the pandemic, in addition to its regular 1,000 monthly articles and videos about health, nutrition and lifestyle. All of Healthline Media’s articles and videos are free to anyone who logs on to the company’s sites.
Healthline has created a repository of its COVID-19 content pertaining to mental health. The Healthline Mental Health Hub went live on Friday, May 1 to coincide with the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Month in the U.S.
Starting today and repeating every two weeks, Healthline will update results of the weekly survey of its internal audience and the bi-weekly survey of the general population on Healthline Insider. Access to the findings is free of charge.
About Healthline Media
San Francisco-based Healthline Media’s mission is to empower people to be their strongest and healthiest selves by being a trusted ally in their pursuit of health and well-being. The company is one of the world’s fastest growing health information brands with online properties Healthline.com, MedicalNewsToday.com and Greatist.com. Healthline Media’s sites provide evidence-based articles with the highest standards of medical integrity that support the modern health consumer with a whole-person approach to health and wellness. Healthline Media is the top ranked health publisher and number 39 on Comscore’s Top 100 Property rankings through January 2020. Across all of its properties, Healthline Media publishes articles authored by more than 120 writers and reviewed by more than 100 doctors, clinicians, dietitians, and other experts. The company’s repository contains more than 70,000 articles, each updated with current protocol. More than 250 million people worldwide and 87 million people in the U.S. visit Healthline’s sites each month, according to data from Google Analytics and Comscore, respectively. Healthline Media is owned by Red Ventures.
About YouGov Tracker and Healthline Media
YouGov, an international research data and analytics group, has been running a weekly global COVID-19 tracker across 26 countries, including the United States, since March 12, 2020, to explore and track the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s lives. On April 3, 2020, Healthline Media incorporated five custom questions as part of the YouGov COVID-19 Tracker, which are being reported on a biweekly basis. The tracker includes a total of 1,000 responses every other week.
