Leaving home is stressful in pandemic era, survey shows

Over half of respondents reported feeling anxious while being out in public

OTTAWA—As restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 persist, a new survey suggests more than half of Canadians find it stressful to venture out in public.

In a web survey conducted by polling firm Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies, 57 per cent of respondents said leaving their home for a public space caused anxiety.

While the figures were relatively consistent across the country, they reached a high of 64 per cent in Ontario and a low of 48 per cent in Alberta.

In comparison, 64 per cent of American respondents said they found it somewhat or very stressful to go out in public during the pandemic.

The survey was conducted May 8 to 11 among 1,526 Canadians and 1,004 Americans, 18 or older, who were randomly recruited from an online panel.

Since polls created from internet panels are not random samples, however, the survey can’t be assigned a margin of error.

The polling firm says that using data from the 2016 census, results were weighted according to age, gender, mother tongue, region, level of education and presence of children in the household in order to ensure a representative sample of the population.

Forty-three per cent of Canadians who took part found going out in public somewhat stressful while 13 per cent considered it very stressful. The figures do not correspond to the sum of 57 per cent due to rounding. Ten per cent of men who responded found going out very stressful, compared with 17 per cent of women.

In addition, 42 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they wore a protective mask when they did head out to public areas in the last week. Fifty-one per cent said people outside their family had gotten within two metres of them over the last seven days.