Methodology: The Puerto Rico Epidemiological Evaluation and Prevention of COVID-19 and Influenza (PREPCOVI) study is an automated telephone-based surveillance of COVID-19 and Influenza among adults. Participants who completed the brief primary questionnaire could complete an additional module. This presentation focused on the Social, Economic and Mental Health Impact module as was completed in the period of November 18, 2020 to March 15,2021.

Results: Among 197 participants who completed this module, 52.3% reported being moderately to extremely worried about getting infected with COVID-19 in the last 30 days. Additionally, around two-thirds (67.7%) reported being moderately to extremely worried about friends or family getting infected with COVID-19. When asked to self-report mental health during the last 30 days, and 47.8% of the participants felt very to moderately anxious, 41.8% exhausted, and 32.3% sad/depressed. Moreover, 50.3% felt moderately to extremely nervous and 36.8% felt lonely. We found that 55.5% of respondents reported that they or their family member faced reduced capacity to make money due to the pandemic in the last 30 days. Moreover, 20.5% reported that they or a family member had lost their job in the last 30 days. Majority (76.6%) of participants stated never using any legal/illegal substance or prescription medication and 43.3% stated not drinking alcohol in the last 30 days.

Conclusions: Surveys in the United States show that 40% of adults and 52.1% Hispanic adults reported struggling with mental health or substance use since the COVID-19 pandemic started, compared to 52.7% of PREPCOVI participants.