Women’s Health during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic afflicted all aspects of humanity with skepticism. It is meaningful to study its impact on women who worked appreciably hard to protect the family by taking charge of all the household responsibilities along with immense psychological and domestic challenges. The present study investigates women’s physical, mental, and reproductive health disturbances amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. 50 women between the ages of 21 and 50 were recruited from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Sir Sunder Lal Hospital and the Institute of Medical Sciences at the BHU in Uttar Pradesh, India. The Physical Health Questionnaire (Schat, Aaron & Kelloway, Kevin & Desmarais, Serge, 2005), the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979), and the Reproductive Health Questionnaire (Eadie & Runtz, 2007) were used to measure physical health, mental health, and reproductive health, respectively. Overall, women experienced physical, mental, and reproductive health problems. The findings revealed significant differences in physical health between married and unmarried women, working and non-working women, and reproductive health differences between women in nuclear and joint families. Women’s reproductive health significantly positively correlates with mental and physical health, and mental health also significantly positively correlates with physical health. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on women’s health, irrespective of socio-economic strata. They faced greater health risks because they were responsible for both family and work. It deteriorated their overall health—physical, mental, and reproductive— while planning, managing, and handling the COVID-19 pandemic.