School of Psychology, Centre for Innovation in Mental Health, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Academic Unit of Psychology and Clinical and Experimental Sciences (CNS and Psychiatry), University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Evid Based Ment Health. 2022 Nov;25(4):e3. doi: 10.1136/ebmental-2022-300461. Epub 2022 Jul 28.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in mental ill health compared with prepandemic levels. Longer-term trajectories of depression in adults during the pandemic remain unclear.
We used latent growth curve modelling to examine individual trajectories of depression symptoms, and their predictors, beyond the early stage of the pandemic.
Data were collected in three waves in May 2020, September/October 2020 and February/March 2021 in four UK cohorts (Millennium Cohort Study, Next Steps cohort, British Cohort and National Child Development Study). We included n=16 978 participants (mean age at baseline: 20, 30, 50 and 62, respectively). Self-reported depressive symptoms were the study outcome.
Symptoms of depression were higher in younger compared with older age groups (d=0.7) across all waves. While depressive symptoms remained stable from May 2020 to Autumn 2020 overall (standardized mean difference (SMD)=0.03, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.04), they increased in all age groups from May 2020 to Spring 2021 (SMD=0.12, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.13). Feelings of loneliness were the strongest predictor and concurrent correlate of increasing depressive symptoms across all cohorts, prepandemic mental health problems and having a long-term illness were also significantly associated with an increase in depression symptoms across all ages. By contrast, compliance with social distancing measures did not predict an increase in depression symptoms.
Feeling lonely and isolated had a large effect on depression trajectories across all generations, while social distancing measures did not.
These findings highlight the importance of fostering the feeling of connectedness during COVID-19-related distancing measures.
与大流行前水平相比，COVID-19 大流行导致精神健康不良的情况有所增加。大流行期间成年人抑郁症的长期轨迹仍不清楚。
我们使用潜在增长曲线模型来检查大流行早期之后抑郁症状的个体轨迹及其预测因素。
在 2020 年 5 月、2020 年 9 月/10 月和 2021 年 2 月/3 月的三个阶段，在英国的四个队列（千禧年队列研究、下一步队列、英国队列和全国儿童发展研究）中收集数据。我们纳入了 n=16978 名参与者（基线时的平均年龄分别为 20、30、50 和 62 岁）。自我报告的抑郁症状是研究结果。
在所有阶段，年轻组的抑郁症状均高于年长组（d=0.7）。尽管整体而言，从 2020 年 5 月到秋季 2020 年，抑郁症状保持稳定（标准化均数差（SMD）=0.03，95%CI 0.02 至 0.04），但在所有年龄组中，从 2020 年 5 月到 2021 年春季，抑郁症状均有所增加（SMD=0.12，95%CI 0.11 至 0.13）。孤独感是所有队列中抑郁症状增加的最强预测因素和同时的相关因素，大流行前的心理健康问题和长期患病也与所有年龄段的抑郁症状增加显著相关。相比之下，遵守社交距离措施并不能预测抑郁症状的增加。
孤独感和孤立感对所有年龄段的抑郁轨迹都有很大影响，而社交距离措施没有。
这些发现强调了在 COVID-19 相关隔离措施期间促进联系感的重要性。
