Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Genes Brain Behav. 2022 Nov;21(8):e12796. doi: 10.1111/gbb.12796. Epub 2022 Mar 15.
By treating the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as a natural experiment, we examine the influence of substantial environmental change (i.e., lockdown measures) on individual differences in quality of life (QoL) in the Netherlands. We compare QoL scores before the pandemic (N = 25,772) to QoL scores during the pandemic (N = 17,222) in a sample of twins and their family members. On a 10-point scale, we find a significant decrease in mean QoL from 7.73 (SD = 1.06) before the pandemic to 7.02 (SD = 1.36) during the pandemic (Cohen's d = 0.49). Additionally, variance decomposition shows an increase in unique environmental variance during the pandemic (0.30-1.08), and a decrease in the heritability estimate from 30.9% to 15.5%. We hypothesize that the increased environmental variance is the result of lockdown measures not impacting everybody equally. Whether these effects persist over longer periods and how they impact health inequalities remain topics for future investigation.
通过将 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行视为自然实验，我们研究了实质性环境变化（即封锁措施）对荷兰个体生活质量（QoL）差异的影响。我们将大流行前的 QoL 评分（N=25772）与大流行期间的 QoL 评分（N=17222）进行了比较，样本包括双胞胎及其家庭成员。在 10 分制中，我们发现平均 QoL 从大流行前的 7.73（SD=1.06）显著下降到大流行期间的 7.02（SD=1.36）（Cohen's d=0.49）。此外，方差分解显示大流行期间独特环境方差增加（0.30-1.08），遗传率估计值从 30.9%下降到 15.5%。我们假设，环境方差的增加是由于封锁措施对每个人的影响并不相同。这些影响是否会持续更长时间，以及它们如何影响健康不平等，仍是未来研究的主题。
