Predictors of mental health deterioration from pre- to post-COVID-19 outbreak.
BJPsych Open
; 8(5): e162, 2022 Aug 30.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2021388
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Mental health was only modestly affected in adults during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic on the group level, but interpersonal variation was large.AIMS:
We aim to investigate potential predictors of the differences in changes in mental health.METHOD:
Data were aggregated from three Dutch ongoing prospective cohorts with similar methodology for data collection. We included participants with pre-pandemic data gathered during 2006-2016, and who completed online questionnaires at least once during lockdown in The Netherlands between 1 April and 15 May 2020. Sociodemographic, clinical (number of mental health disorders and personality factors) and COVID-19-related variables were analysed as predictors of relative changes in four mental health outcomes (depressive symptoms, anxiety and worry symptoms, and loneliness), using multivariate linear regression analyses.RESULTS:
We included 1517 participants with (n = 1181) and without (n = 336) mental health disorders. Mean age was 56.1 years (s.d. 13.2), and 64.3% were women. Higher neuroticism predicted increases in all four mental health outcomes, especially for worry (ß = 0.172, P = 0.003). Living alone and female gender predicted increases in depressive symptoms and loneliness (ß = 0.05-0.08), whereas quarantine and strict adherence with COVID-19 restrictions predicted increases in anxiety and worry symptoms (ß = 0.07-0.11).Teleworking predicted a decrease in anxiety symptoms (ß = -0.07) and higher age predicted a decrease in anxiety (ß = -0.08) and worry symptoms (ß = -0.10).CONCLUSIONS:
Our study showed neuroticism as a robust predictor of adverse changes in mental health, and identified additional sociodemographic and COVID-19-related predictors that explain longitudinal variability in mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Language:
English
Journal:
BJPsych Open
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Bjo.2022.555
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS