Latin American perceptions of fear and exaggeration transmitted by the media with regard to COVID-19: frequency and association with severe mental pathologies

• Autores: Mejia, Christian R., Aveiro-Róbalo, Telmo Raul, Garlisi Torales, Luciana Daniela, Castro Hidalgo, Verónica Alejandra, Valeriano, Jhino, Ibarra-Montenegro, David Alfonso, Conde-Escobar, Aram, Sánchez-Soto, Fernanda, Canaviri-Murillo, Yuliana, Oliva-Ponce, María, Serna-Alarcón, Victor, Vilela-Estrada, Martín A., Arias-Chávez, Dennis
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2023
• Institución: Universidad Privada Norbert Wiener
• Repositorio: UWIENER-Institucional
• Lenguaje: inglés
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.uwiener.edu.pe:20.500.13053/9528
• Enlace del recurso: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13053/9528
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: media, fear, pandemic, COVID-19, mental health, Latin America; 3.03.00 -- Ciencias de la salud

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the spread of abundant misinformation by the media, which caused fear and concern. Objective: To determine the association between the pathologies of the mental sphere and the perceptions of fear and exaggeration transmitted by the media with respect to COVID-19 in Latin America. Methodology: The present study has an analytical cross-sectional design that is based on a validated survey to measure fear and exaggeration transmitted by the media and other sources (Cronbach’s α: 0.90). We surveyed more than 6,000 people, originally from 12 Latin American countries, who associated this perceived exaggeration with stress, depression, and anxiety (measured through DASS-21, Cronbach’s α: 0.96). Results: Social networks (40%) or television (34%) were perceived as the sources that exaggerate the magnitude of the events. In addition, television (35%) and social networks (28%) were perceived as the sources that generate much fear. On the contrary, physicians and health personnel are the sources that exaggerated less (10%) or provoked less fear (14%). Through a multivariate model, we found a higher level of global perception that was associated with whether the participant was older (p = 0.002), had severe or more serious anxiety (p = 0.033), or had stress (p = 0,037). However, in comparison with Peru (the most aected country), there was a lower level of perception in Chile (p < 0.001), Paraguay (p = 0.001), Mexico (p < 0.001), Ecuador (p = 0.001), and Costa Rica (p = 0.042). All of them were adjusted for gender and for those having severe or major depression. Frontiers in Psychology 01 frontiersin.or Mejia et al. 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1037450 Conclusion: There exists an association between some mental pathologies and the perception that the media does not provide moderate information.