Commentary Mental health generally declined during COVID-19 but some with depression fared better

DENMARK: Depression and anxiety disorders increased by over a quarter globally in 2020, according to a recent review of 48 scientific papers. But although there’s been an obvious negative trend during the pandemic, deteriorating mental health hasn’t been inevitable and people haven’t been affected equally.

In our recent study, we found variation in how the pandemic has affected mental health, and that for some, mental well-being actually increased under COVID-19.

We surveyed a nationally representative sample of around 4,200 Danish people in the autumn of 2020. Importantly, these people had already taken part in a population survey in the autumn of 2019, so we could compare their responses half a year into the pandemic with how they reported feeling just before it started.

For most, their mental health declined. The average score participants gave their mental well-being fell from 25.5 to 24.6, on a scale ranging from seven to 35. At the same time, the proportion reporting low levels of mental well-being (indicative of poor mental health) increased from 16.5 per cent in 2019 to 20.1 per cent in 2020.

The decreases in mental well-being were similar across the sexes and age groups.

But surprisingly, we saw no decrease in mental well-being among people with longstanding physical or mental illnesses, nor people living with depression prior to the pandemic. In fact, for people who had depression beforehand, we saw an increase in average mental wellbeing, from 18.7 to 19.6.

WHY GENERAL POPULATION FELT WORSE

Various factors probably played a role in the general decline in the population’s mental well-being, such as economic hardship, heavy COVID-related media exposure and reduced social connectedness driven by lockdowns, travel restrictions, school and workplace closures.

Our results confirmed that reduced social connectedness in particular could account for the decline. Participants’ sense of whether they “felt close to other people” showed a pronounced decline between 2019 and 2020.

Share this post