A survey of more than 800 people living in Afghanistan carried out since the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, shows high rates of stress, food insecurity, and limited healthcare access.
A new paper published this week in PLOS Mental Health by Jessi Hanson-DeFusco of Lawrence Technical University, USA, and colleagues has found that approximately nine in ten Afghans included in the study currently face diminished quality of life correlates related to higher psychosocial stress. They also report that nearly three-quarters face food insecurity, and more than 7 in 10 have poor access to healthcare.
After the August 2021 withdrawal of U.S. military forces, the Taliban reestablished control over Afghanistan, leading to international sanctions, growing issues of economic hardship, and changes to daily life.
As part of their study, researchers collected digital survey data in 2023 from 873 respondents, aged 18 through 65, living in Afghanistan. 94.2% were men, and more than half were aged 18-29. The survey included multiple choice questions related to psychosocial stress, demographics and quality of life, as well as additional open-ended questions where participants could elaborate.
Overall, 88.38% of participants reported suffering some level of food insecurity; 88.78% had limited or no healthcare access; 83.59% had infrequent contact with family and friends; 84.82% experienced threats of violence, and 71.97% lost at least one or more family members (killed or displaced) since the American withdrawal. In addition, reported psychosocial stress levels were moderately high, with anxiety, poor sleep, and anger being the most prominent stressors. Comments from participants highlighted a lack of humanitarian aid access, lack of freedom of speech and women's rights, struggles with malnutrition and high rates of job loss and unemployment.
"The bleak conditions in the country have worsened in such a way that nearly everyone irrespective of their background appears to be negatively affected," the authors say. "This research validates many of the concerns of the humanitarian crisis on the ground, as well as provides insight into how political shifts have resulted in socio-economic hardships affecting Afghans who remained in country after the 2021 U.S. withdrawal."
In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Mental Health: https://journals.plos.org/mentalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmen.0000118
Citation: Hanson-DeFusco J, Sobolov A, Stanekzai S, McMaster A, Popalzai H, Shah H, et al. (2025) The association of diminished quality of life of Afghan adults' psychosocial wellbeing, in the era of the Taliban 2.0 government. PLOS Ment Health 2(1): e0000118. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000118
Author Countries: Afghanistan, United States
Funding: NK and HS received the 2023 Hobson Wildenthal Honors College Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP) grant to serve as co-researchers on this project, from the University of Texas at Dallas (https://honors.utdallas.edu/research/undergraduate-research-apprenticeship-program/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. No other authors received specific funding for this work.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
