Functional Brain Connectivity Prior to the COVID-19 Outbreak Moderates the Effects of Coping and Perceived Stress on Mental Health Changes: A First Year of COVID-19 Pandemic Follow-up Study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to investigate the psychological impact of a global major adverse situation. Our aim was to examine, in a longitudinal prospective study, the demographic, psychological, and neurobiological factors associated with interindividual differences in resilience to the mental health impact of the pandemic. METHODS: We included 2023 healthy participants (age: 54.32 ± 7.18 years, 65.69% female) from the Barcelona Brain Health Initiative cohort. A linear mixed model was used to characterize the change in anxiety and depression symptoms based on data collected both pre-pandemic and during the pandemic. During the pandemic, psychological variables assessing individual differences in perceived stress and coping strategies were obtained. In addition, in a subsample (n = 433, age 53.02 ± 7.04 years, 46.88% female) with pre-pandemic resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging available, the system segregation of networks was calculated. Multivariate linear models were fitted to test associations between COVID-19-related changes in mental health and demographics, psychological features, and brain network status. RESULTS: The whole sample showed a general increase in anxiety and depressive symptoms after the pandemic onset, and both age and sex were independent predictors. Coping strategies attenuated the impact of perceived stress on mental health. The system segregation of the frontoparietal control and default mode networks were found to modulate the impact of perceived stress on mental health. CONCLUSIONS: Preventive strategies targeting the promotion of mental health at the individual level during similar adverse events in the future should consider intervening on sociodemographic and psychological factors as well as their interplay with neurobiological substrates.

No Effects of Meteorological Factors on the SARS-CoV-2 Infection Fatality Rate.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have shown that meteorological factors may increase COVID-19 mortality, likely due to the increased transmission of the virus. However, this could also be related to an increased infection fatality rate (IFR). We investigated the association between meteorological factors (temperature, humidity, solar irradiance, pressure, wind, precipitation, cloud coverage) and IFR across Spanish provinces ( n = 52) during the first wave of the pandemic (weeks 10-16 of 2020). METHODS: We estimated IFR as excess deaths (the gap between observed and expected deaths, considering COVID-19-unrelated deaths prevented by lockdown measures) divided by the number of infections (SARS-CoV-2 seropositive individuals plus excess deaths) and conducted Spearman correlations between meteorological factors and IFR across the provinces. RESULTS: We estimated 2,418,250 infections and 43,237 deaths. The IFR was 0.03% in < 50-year-old, 0.22% in 50-59-year-old, 0.9% in 60-69-year-old, 3.3% in 70-79-year-old, 12.6% in 80-89-year-old, and 26.5% in ≥ 90-year-old. We did not find statistically significant relationships between meteorological factors and adjusted IFR. However, we found strong relationships between low temperature and unadjusted IFR, likely due to Spain's colder provinces' aging population. CONCLUSION: The association between meteorological factors and adjusted COVID-19 IFR is unclear. Neglecting age differences or ignoring COVID-19-unrelated deaths may severely bias COVID-19 epidemiological analyses.

Study Protocol-Coping With the Pandemics: What Works Best to Reduce Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and lockdown might increase anxiety and depressive symptoms in most individuals. Health bodies recommend several coping behaviors to protect against such symptoms, but evidence on the relationship between these behaviors and symptoms mostly comes from cross-sectional studies in convenience samples. We will conduct a prospective longitudinal study of the associations between coping behaviors and subsequent anxiety and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in a representative sample of the Spanish general adult population. Methods: We will recruit 1,000 adult participants from all autonomous communities of Spain and with sex, age, and urbanicity distributions similar to those of their populations and assess anxiety and depressive symptoms and coping behaviors using fortnightly questionnaires and real-time methods (ecological momentary assessments) for 1 year. The fortnightly questionnaires will inquire about anxiety and depressive symptoms [General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)] and the frequency of 10 potential coping behaviors (e.g., follow a routine) during the past 2 weeks. In addition, we will collect several variables that could confound or moderate these associations. These will include subjective well-being [International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short Form (I-PANAS-SF) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)], obsessive-compulsive symptoms [Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R)], personality and emotional intelligence [International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short Form (TEIQue-SF)], sociodemographic factors (e.g., work status, housing-built environment), and COVID-19 pandemic-related variables (e.g., hospitalizations or limitations in social gatherings). Finally, to analyze the primary relationship between coping behaviors and subsequent anxiety and depressive symptoms, we will use autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models. Discussion: Based on the study results, we will develop evidence-based, clear, and specific recommendations on coping behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Such suggestions might eventually help health bodies or individuals to manage current or future pandemics.