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Sample description of respondents reporting being nervous and/or anxious, SHARE data (8th wave), unweighted.
Source publication
Objective
Governments across the world have deployed a wide range of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Certain NPIs, like limiting social contacts or lockdowns, had negative consequences for mental health in the population. Especially elder people are prone to mental illnesses during the current pandemic. Th...
Context in source publication
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Background/Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on mental health worldwide, especially exacerbating Eating Disorders (EDs). This study aims to evaluate changes in the presentation and severity of EDs before and after the pandemic at the Regional Residential Center "Mariconda" in Salerno. Methods: This retrospective cohort stu...
Background
The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health is now clearly established. However, information on the levels of mental ill health of people infected with COVID-19 and potential correlates of poor mental health is still limited. Therefore, the current study aimed to study indicative of potential mental health problems...
Background: Mental illness indicators increased among U.S. university students in recent years; COVID-19 associated disruptions presented additional mental health challenges for students.
Aim: This research aimed to assess the relationship between coping strategies identified by university students and scores on resilience and flourishing scales a...
During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, lockdowns and movement restrictions were thought to negatively impact population mental health, since depression and anxiety symptoms were frequently reported. This study investigates the effect of COVID-19 mitigation measures on mental health across the United States, at county and state levels us...
Objectives
This study primarily aimed to estimate the prevalence of mental illnesses (depression, anxiety, and stress) along with the poor quality of sleep, with a secondary focus on determining whether there was an association between mental health and quality of sleep among nurses working at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,...
Citations
... We are interested in mental declines. Therefore, following previous studies (36)(37)(38), we combined the info of these two questions, resulting into a binary indicator of a decline in mental well-being taking a value of 1 if respondents reported to feel "more often" sad or depressed and 0 otherwise. ...
Introduction
Intergenerational support is an important determinant of mental health. Due to limited access to formal care, the role of the family as provider of support became more prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, it remains unclear how intergenerational support from adult children to older parents was affected during the pandemic and whether this had consequences for the mental health of the parent generation.
Methods
Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) Corona Surveys, we explore whether changes in support going from non-coresident adult children to their parents are associated with parents’ increase in depressive feelings. Additionally, we test whether the pandemic context and public health measures affected this relationship.
Results
During the pandemic, families are found to provide more support. These changes in intergenerational support, however, were related to increased depressive feelings for the older parents. Furthermore, both the strictness of public health measures and the concurrent epidemiological situation affected this relationship.
Conclusion
We conclude that the family is an essential source of late-life well-being, but stressful life events, such as public health crises, put pressure on these intergenerational relations with potential adverse mental health outcomes. Future policies should take into account the ambivalent nature of intergenerational relationships.
... Other studies have found that older age and living alone were associated with greater mental health problems during COVID-19 (Berniell et al., 2021a(Berniell et al., , 2021bMaxfield and Pituch, 2020;Shevlin et al., 2020), while some other studies (Litwin and Stoeckel, 2014;Torres et al., 2023) showed these variables to be related to the no network and the others social network profiles. In addition, studies reported differences in older adults' mental health during COVID-19 across different countries (Lüdecke and von dem Knesebeck., 2022;Mendez-Lopez et al., 2022) and the study by Torres et al. (2023) showed that the prevalence of each social network profile differed across geographic regions in Europe. ...
This study examined the impact of different social networks on the mental health outcomes of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 25,534 older adults from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The study identified five social network profiles (family, friends, spouse, diverse, others) and a “no network” group. Findings showed that, compared to the no network profile, those with spouse and family profiles are more protected against depression and loneliness during the COVID-19. In turn, individuals within friends and diverse profiles had a similar likelihood of feeling depressed, anxious, and lonely. Friends and diverse profiles had higher likelihood of suffering more anxious or lonelier than before the COVID-19 compared to the no network profile. The study further discusses possible explanations about why these profiles, which typically served as mental health protectors, were significantly affected by the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.
... There is evidence that people in countries with higher infection rates experienced higher anxiety and depression than people in countries with lower infection rates, but mixed evidence for effects of levels of the stringency of government response on mental health [5]. This is supported by research showing that although people from both the UK and NZ reported elevated stress, anxiety, and depression, in the pandemic compared to pre-population norms, stress and anxiety were significantly worse in the UK than in NZ [6,7]. ...
... Analysis has shown that countries with lower infection rates experienced lower anxiety and depression [5]. Our results suggest this may also extend to lower hair cortisol. ...
Background
Evidence suggests that countries with higher Covid-19 infection rates experienced poorer mental health. This study examined whether hair cortisol reduced over time in New Zealand, a country that managed to eliminate the virus in the first year of the pandemic due to an initial strict lockdown.
Methods
A longitudinal cohort study assessed self-reported stress, anxiety and depression and collected hair samples that were analyzed for cortisol, across two waves in 2020. The sample consisted of 44 adults who each returned two 3 cm hair samples and completed self-reports. Hair cortisol was assessed per centimetre.
Results
Hair cortisol reduced over time (F (5, 99.126) = 10.15, p < .001, partial eta squared = 0.19), as did anxiety and depression. Higher hair cortisol was significantly associated with more negative life events reported at wave two (r = 0.30 segment 1, r = 0.34 segment 2, p < .05), but not anxiety or depression.
Conclusions
Strict virus control measures may not only reduce infection rates, but also reduce psychological distress, and hair cortisol over time.
... 9 Considering the elderly population specifically, not only reduced social contacts, but especially living alone without a partner put the elderly at higher risks of negative health outcomes and worsened SRH. 10 Finally, female sex was associated with worsened SRH, not only physical but also particularly mental health. 11 Further important factors related to SRH were infection rates and whether one was personally affected by a COVID-19 infection. Widespread occurrences of infectious diseases were closely related to symptoms of psychological distress, such as depression and anxiety, which had negative effects on SRH among older people. ...
... 3, 36,37 Especially stricter government response mandates were associated with a decline in mental health. 11 Yet, most of those studies were conducted in a single country, comparing pre-and current pandemic situations, while our study includes many different European countries, all of which differed in terms of the scope and intensity of the NPIs. This might be a reason for the inconsistent associations we found between our macro indicators and worsened SRH. ...
Background:
Governments across Europe deployed non-pharmaceutical interventions to mitigate the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which not only showed clear benefits but also had negative consequences on peoples' health. Health inequalities increased, disproportionally affecting people with higher age or lower education. This study analyzed associations between social factors and worsened self-rated health of elderly people in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking different stringencies of government mandates as well as infection rates into account.
Methods:
Data stem from the European SHARE survey. The main outcome was a binary indicator of worsened self-rated health. Analyses included data from two waves (2020 and 2021) during the pandemic (N = 48 356 participants, N = 96 712 observations). Predictors were age, sex, education and living together with a partner, and two macro indicators that reflected the stringency of government response mandates and COVID-19 infection rates. Data were analyzed using logistic mixed-effects regression models.
Results:
Older age [odds ratio (OR) 1.73, confidence interval (CI) 1.65-1.81] and female sex (OR 1.26, CI 1.20-1.32) were positively associated and higher education (OR 0.74, CI 0.70-0.79) was negatively associated with worsened self-rated health. Not living together with a partner showed higher odds of worsened self-rated health (OR 1.30, CI 1.24-1.36). Inequalities increased from 2020 to 2021. Associations between worsened self-rated health and government response mandates or infection rates were inconsistent.
Conclusion:
Self-rated health worsened in the course of the pandemic and health disparities increased. Possible future pandemics require targeted interventions to minimize adverse health outcomes, in particular among old, potentially isolated, and deprived people.
... Strategies 1 and 3 have a short duration but a high intensity, contrary to strategy 2, which has a very long duration and a moderate intensity. NPIs are known to induce much stress and anxiety and, more generally, a decline in mental health [58,59]. We do not discuss this matter here, but there is a need to carefully consider a possible trade-off between the duration and intensity of NPIs. ...
We developed a mathematical model to study the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on the dynamics of an epidemic. The level of intervention was assessed as a fraction of the population being isolated and depended on the level of incidence of the epidemic in the population. We performed a mathematical analysis of the model and showed that, depending on the choice of the prevalence-dependent isolation function, it is possible to create new endemic equilibria and to change the stability of the disease-free equilibrium for which the epidemic vanishes. The model was then applied to the case of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several NPI management strategies were considered. In the case of an NPI intensity increasing with the level of infection, it is possible to avoid the initial epidemic peak of great amplitude that would have occurred without intervention and to stabilize the epidemic at a chosen and sufficiently low endemic level. In the case of an NPI intensity decreasing with the level of infection, the epidemic can be driven to extinction by generating an "Allee" effect: when the incidence is below a given level, the epidemic goes extinct whereas, above it, the epidemic will still be able take hold at a lower endemic level. Simulations illustrate that appropriate NPIs could make the COVID-19 vanish relatively fast. We show that, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries have not chosen to use the most efficient strategies.
... Two of the studies found that the extent of the stringency of the epidemic control measures in some 25 European countries and Israel was related to an increased prevalence of feelings of sadness/depression [8,13]. However, a third study based on this same database concluded that the stringency of such non-pharmaceutical interventions showed inconsistent associations with depression and anxiety [14]. Interestingly, a fourth SHARE-based study found that the epidemic control measures were protective of mental health, or at least neutral [15]. ...
... Several of these same variables have been reported to be correlated with depression outcomes during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as well. For example, age [14], gender [11,34], economic status, [35] and marital status [11,34] were all variously related to post-outbreak depression in the studies cited. Health or disability was similarly related [36]. ...
This study examined the correlates of change in the depressed state among people aged 65 and older during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, particularly the effects of crucial pandemic-related variables. Data were drawn from the longitudinal Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), including information obtained from two special pandemic-related telephone interviews (N = 18, 266). The analysis regressed depressed state soon after the outbreak (T1) and again a year later (T2), on four pandemic-related variables (infection status, the stringency of control measures, and two forms of social network contact during the pandemic: face-to-face contact and communication through electronic means), controlling for baseline depression and health, sociodemographic variables, personality traits, and social network characteristics. The main findings were threefold. First, the epidemic-control measures were found to increase the likelihood of a depressed state soon after the pandemic outbreak, but not in the longer run. This data suggests that respondents became more resilient about the pandemic and its effects over time. Second, interpersonal contact utilizing electronic media did not reduce depression rates in the long run and increased depressed state in the short run. Thus, as mandated by epidemic-control policy, the promotion of electronic contact instead of face-to-face contact constituted a mental health risk factor. Third, face-to-face contact reduced the likelihood of change for the worse in the rate of depression among the respondents. This last finding underscores the need for older people to have close interpersonal contact, even in times of pandemic.
... Bulgaria is one of the most impacted by COVID-19 countries in the world in terms of life expectancy decline (Kuehn, 2022), the high mortality rate (Ziakas et al., 2022), low vaccination coverage (Mitev & Nanov, 2022), and mental health decline (Lüdecke & von dem Knesebeck, 2022). Together with the above, the higher education sector of Bulgaria has also undergone changes during the transition process to online learning. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the lives of older adults. Yet, little is known about changes in well-being among older adults during the pandemic, especially when COVID-19 measures were relaxed. Therefore, we aimed to assess changes in the well-being of older adults during multiple turning points of the pandemic. This longitudinal study included data from Dutch older adults (≥65 years old) participating in the Lifelines COVID-19 cohort. Data consisted of seven questionnaires, administered every 2–4 months between May 2020 and October 2021. The outcomes were quality of life (n = 14 682), physical fitness (n = 14 761), and feelings of isolation (n = 14 611), all graded on a scale from 0 to 10. Changes in well-being were analysed by multivariable linear mixed-effects models. The context of measures was described using the Government Stringency Index. Quality of life and feelings of isolation decreased when measures were tightened and increased when measures were relaxed. For example, when measures relaxed after the first lockdown in May 2020, quality of life increased by 0.23 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.16–0.29] towards July 2020. Physical fitness decreased by 0.26 [95% CI: 0.15–0.37] during the study period. Differences between subsamples were not found, except for sex in feelings of isolation, which differences diminished after a period of relaxed measures. Changes in quality of life and feelings of isolation improved after periods of stringent COVID-19 measures. Physical fitness did not improve after measures were relaxed, suggesting a possible negative effect of the pandemic on the physical fitness of older adults.
Background
There is debate as to whether a coronavirus infection (SARS-CoV-2) affects older adults’ physical activity, sleeping problems, weight, feelings of social isolation, and quality of life (QoL). We investigated differences in these outcomes between older adults with and without coronavirus infection over 180 days following infection.
Methods
We included 6789 older adults (65+) from the Lifelines COVID-19 cohort study who provided data between April 2020 and June 2021. Older adults (65+) with and without coronavirus infection were matched on sex, age, education, living situation, body mass index, smoking status, vulnerable health, time of infection, and precoronavirus health outcome. Weighted linear mixed models, adjusted for strictness of governmental policy measures, were used to compare health outcomes after infection between groups.
Results
In total, 309 participants were tested positive for coronavirus. Eight days after infection, older adults with a coronavirus infection engaged in less physical activity, had more sleeping problems, weighed less, felt more socially isolated, and had a lower QoL than those without an infection. Differences in weight, feelings of social isolation, and QoL were absent after 90 days. However, differences in physical activity were still present at 90 days following infection and sleeping problems were present at 180 days.
Conclusion
Our findings found negative associations of coronavirus infection with all the examined outcomes, which for physical activity persisted for 90 days and sleeping problems for 180 days. Magnitudes of estimated effects on physical activity and sleeping problems remain uncertain.
