Department of Economics, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
CEPR, London, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2021 Jan 6;16(1):e0244419. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244419. eCollection 2021.
We use the UK Household Longitudinal Study and compare pre-COVID-19 pandemic (2017-2019) and during-COVID-19 pandemic data (April 2020) for the same group of individuals to assess and quantify changes in mental health as measured by changes in the GHQ-12 (General Health Questionnaire), among ethnic groups in the UK. We confirm the previously documented average deterioration in mental health for the whole sample of individuals interviewed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we find that the average increase in mental distress varies by ethnicity and gender. Both women -regardless of their ethnicity- and Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) men experienced a higher average increase in mental distress than White British men, so that the gender gap in mental health increases only among White British individuals. These ethnic-gender specific changes in mental health persist after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Finally, we find some evidence that, among men, Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani individuals have experienced the highest average increase in mental distress with respect to White British men.
我们使用了英国家庭纵向研究，并比较了新冠大流行前（2017-2019 年）和大流行期间（2020 年 4 月）同一组人群的数据，以评估和量化心理健康状况的变化，其衡量指标是 GHQ-12（一般健康问卷）的变化，同时考虑了英国不同族裔群体的情况。我们证实了之前记录的在新冠大流行前后接受访谈的所有个体的心理健康平均恶化情况。此外，我们发现，精神困扰的平均增长因族裔和性别而异。无论其族裔如何，女性和黑人、亚裔及少数族裔（BAME）男性的精神困扰平均增长都高于英国白人男性，因此心理健康方面的性别差距仅在英国白人个体中扩大。在控制人口统计学和社会经济特征后，这些心理健康方面的种族-性别特定变化仍然存在。最后，我们发现一些证据表明，在男性中，孟加拉国、印度和巴基斯坦个体的精神困扰平均增长相对于英国白人男性而言最高。
