A severe and chronic socio-economic crisis, how much can Lebanese workers take?

People in Lebanon have been facing what has been dubbed one of the most severe socio-economic crisis in its history. Over the past few years, suicide rates have spiked, fueled by deteriorating working and living conditions. Research conducted on the mental health of populations residing in low-income countries is meager. Amongst these countries, very little research has examined the repercussions of a severe socio-economic crisis on Lebanese people's mental health.

This study is based on a community sample of 220 workers residing in Lebanon. The workers were between 18 and 64 years of age and were either English/and or Arabic literate. In terms of their profession, participants worked in various professions and work sectors. For the purpose of this study, we conducted a multiple regression analysis. We used STATA 16 to run these analyses. The multiple regression analysis allowed us to verify the association between several independent variables (work-related, reduced access to electricity, the internet and gas due to the socio-economic crisis, life stressors and family income) and our dependent variables (stress and psychological distress). We also ran mediation analysis to examine the indirect role our variables could play on psychological distress via their effect on stress. We used MPlus Version 8 software to run mediation analysis.

Through a community sample of workers, lack of access to electricity due to the crisis was found to be associated with stress. Similarly, stress related to the crisis, deteriorating working conditions, job insecurity, lack of internet access, and other life stressors were also found to be associated with a higher level of psychological distress. Higher family income and recognition at work seemed to be associated with a lower level of psychological distress. Lastly, lack of access to electricity seemed to be positively associated with psychological distress.

The repercussions of the current situation could have broad implications for a large number of low-income countries.