School of Economics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
PLoS One. 2024 Mar 7;19(3):e0279526. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279526. eCollection 2024.
The Covid pandemic arrived in Ireland on February 29, 2020. In the following weeks various restrictions were introduced to stem the spread of the disease. Anxiety over the spread of the disease and over the restrictions introduced had an adverse effect upon mental health. This study examines the change in mental health for two groups: young adults aged around 23 at the time of onset of Covid (the 1998 cohort) and a sample of principal carers (PCs) of children who were aged 13 at the onset of Covid (the 2008 cohort).
Data were obtained from the two cohorts of the longitudinal Growing Up In Ireland (GUI) survey. The sample included 1953 young adults (from the 1998 cohort) and 3547 principal carers (from the 2008 cohort). Mental health as measured by the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression-8 scale was obtained for the last pre-Covid wave and for the Covid wave (surveyed in December 2020). Observations for which CES-D8 was not available in either pre or post Covid waves were excluded. Post-Covid sampling weights were applied. The change in depression rates was decomposed into a growth and distribution effect using a Shapley decomposition. The socioeconomic gradient of CES-D8 was examined pre and post Covid using concentration indices and a transition matrix was constructed to examine the dynamics of changes in CES-D8 and depression pre and post-Covid.
Relative to the last pre-Covid survey, mental health, as measured by CES-D8 deteriorated for both the young adults of the 1998 cohort and the PCs of the 2008 cohort. For young adults, the deterioration was more pronounced for females. There was no observable socioeconomic gradient for poor mental health amongst young adults, both pre and post Covid. For mothers from the 2008 cohort, a gradient was observed during the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period with poorer mental health status for lower-income and less educated mothers. This gradient was less pronounced post-Covid, the levelling-off arising from a greater deterioration in mental health for higher-income and better-educated PCs.
Both observed cohorts showed a significant deterioration in mental health post Covid. For young adults the effect was significantly more pronounced among females and this is consistent with generally poorer mental health amongst females in this age group. There was little or no socioeconomic gradient observed for young adults, but the gradient became more shallow for principal carers. Care must be taken in terms of drawing policy implications from this study as the Covid-19 pandemic was arguably a unique event, even allowing for the likelihood of future pandemics. However, the study highlights the vulnerability of young adults, especially females, to the mental health effects arising from major public health shocks.
新冠疫情于 2020 年 2 月 29 日在爱尔兰爆发。随后几周内，为了遏制病毒传播，实施了各种限制措施。人们对疾病传播和实施的限制感到焦虑，这对心理健康产生了负面影响。本研究考察了两组人群的心理健康变化：一组是在新冠疫情爆发时（2020 年 2 月 29 日）年龄约为 23 岁的年轻人（1998 年出生的队列），另一组是新冠疫情爆发时年龄为 13 岁的儿童的主要照顾者（2008 年出生的队列）。
数据来自爱尔兰纵向成长研究（Growing Up In Ireland ，GUI）的两个队列。样本包括 1953 名年轻人（来自 1998 年出生的队列）和 3547 名主要照顾者（来自 2008 年出生的队列）。使用流行病学研究中心抑郁量表（Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression-8 scale ，CES-D8）测量心理健康状况，在新冠疫情前的最后一次调查和 2020 年 12 月的新冠疫情调查中获得。在新冠疫情前或后两次调查中均无法获得 CES-D8 数据的观察值被排除在外。对新冠疫情后进行了抽样加权。使用 Shapley 分解法将抑郁率的变化分解为增长效应和分布效应。使用集中指数（concentration indices ）检验了 CES-D8 的社会经济梯度，在新冠疫情前和后，并构建了一个转移矩阵，以检验 CES-D8 和抑郁状况在新冠疫情前和后的变化动态。
与上一次新冠疫情前的调查相比，1998 年出生的队列中的年轻人和 2008 年出生的队列中的主要照顾者的心理健康状况（通过 CES-D8 测量）均有所恶化。对于年轻人来说，女性的恶化程度更为明显。无论是在新冠疫情前还是后，年轻人的不良心理健康状况都没有明显的社会经济梯度。对于来自 2008 年出生的队列的母亲来说，在新冠疫情前，收入较低和教育程度较低的母亲的心理健康状况较差，存在着社会经济梯度。然而，在新冠疫情后，这一梯度变得不那么明显，因为收入较高和教育程度较高的主要照顾者的心理健康状况恶化程度更大，导致了这种水平的趋同。
两个观察队列在新冠疫情后心理健康状况均显著恶化。对于年轻人来说，女性的影响更为显著，这与该年龄段女性普遍较差的心理健康状况一致。对于年轻人来说，几乎没有或没有社会经济梯度，但主要照顾者的梯度变得更浅。在从这项研究中得出政策影响时，必须谨慎，因为即使考虑到未来可能出现的大流行，新冠疫情也是一个独特的事件。然而，该研究强调了年轻人，尤其是女性，在面临重大公共卫生冲击时心理健康受到影响的脆弱性。
