Finances and health issues are among the major factors for the stress experienced by most Filipinos, according to a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
The survey, conducted from Sept. 24 to 30, found that 53 percent of the respondents experienced ‘big’ stress in relation to their financial situation.
Some 37 percent considered it a ‘small’ factor, while 10 percent were undecided.
In terms of stress due to one’s health, 42 percent considered it a ‘big’ factor, while 46 percent said it was ‘small.’ Eleven percent were undecided.
Thirty-nine percent of the respondents said stress related to job or school was a ‘big’ factor, while 51 percent said it was ‘small.’ The remaining nine percent is undecided.
Some 38 percent said they had ‘big’ stress related to their families, while 52 percent considered it ‘small.’ Ten percent were undecided.
The survey was released in time for the annual commemoration of World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10.
According to the survey, 34 percent of the respondents experience stress ‘frequently’ in their daily lives. It was up seven points from a similar survey in December 2019.
Meanwhile, those who said they experience stress ‘sometimes’ dropped from 37 percent to 32 percent, while those who ‘rarely’ experienced stress in their daily lives dropped from 34 percent to 30 percent.
Those who said they never experienced stress increased from two percent to four percent.
Across areas, frequency of experiencing stress was higher among respondents in Metro Manila, where 50 percent of the respondents said they ‘frequently’ experienced stress in their daily lives.
It was followed by those in the rest of Luzon at 36 percent, Mindanao at 28 percent and the Visayas at 26 percent.
The survey also showed that women experience stress more frequently (41 percent frequent, 31 percent sometimes) than men (27 percent frequent, 33 percent sometimes).
The survey had 1,500 respondents and a margin of error of plus/minus three percent for national percentages.