Assessment of Life Satisfaction During COVID among Epidemic Survivors of West African Ebola Virus (2014-16) Currently Living in Victoria-Australia

Abstract

The economic and psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic severely affected the mental wellbeing and satisfaction with life of the 2014-16 Ebola Virus Disease survivors who are living in Victoria-Australia. The pandemic caused job losses and reduced income which according to researchers negatively impacted the quality of life and family dynamics of these survivors. To determine the level of satisfaction with life which 2014-16 EVD survivors had during the COVID pandemic. A sequential exploratory mixed methods collected quantitative online data utilising the Satisfaction with life scale and zoom semi-structured interviews for qualitative data. A descriptive quantitative data analysis which utilised frequencies, percentages and tables was used for responses to the satisfaction with life scale. After this, an electronic transcription of interview data was followed by the five stage of qualitative data analysis. Twenty-seven participants provided data in response to this question in the survey. The reason being that the first two survey questions which sought to determine whether the would-be participants were in an EVD affected country in West Africa during the 2014-16 epidemic. This question solicited a no or yes answer. A no reply meant that the individual was not qualified to participate in the survey and therefore could not continue beyond that point. Second, participants were allowed to skip any question that they were not comfortable with.  53% of the 36 participants were female and they were mainly within ages 18-40 years. Ten out of those who participated in the survey volunteered to participate in the interview but 9 provided data. Results in Table 2 was derived from a summary of the Survey Monkey. Summary from both quantitative and qualitative data shows that despite the fears and hardships which participants encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic, they are satisfied with life in Australia. This study was as a result of researcher’s curiosity to evaluate how the mental health of survivors of these disease outbreaks have been impacted while living in Victoria, Australia. This work provides an insight in to how events during the EVD epidemic as compared to the COVID-19 pandemic period affected participants’ satisfaction with life.