Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Jun 14;19(6):e0304549. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304549. eCollection 2024.
The prevalence of depression in U.S. adults during the COVID-19 pandemic has been high overall and particularly high among persons with fewer assets. Building on previous work on assets and mental health, we document the burden of depression in groups based on income and savings during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a nationally representative, longitudinal panel study of U.S. adults (N = 1,271) collected in April-May 2020 (T1), April-May 2021 (T2), and April-May 2022 (T3), we estimated the adjusted odds of reporting probable depression at any time during the COVID-19 pandemic with generalized estimating equations (GEE). We explored probable depression-defined as a score of ≥10 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)-by four asset groups, defined by median income (≥$65,000) and savings (≥$20,000) categories. The prevalence of probable depression was consistently high in Spring 2020, Spring 2021, and Spring 2022 with 27.9% of U.S. adults reporting probable depression in Spring 2022. We found that there were four distinct asset groups that experienced different depression trajectories over the COVID-19 pandemic. Low income-low savings asset groups had the highest level of probable depression across time, reporting 3.7 times the odds (95% CI: 2.6, 5.3) of probable depression at any time relative to high income-high savings asset groups. While probable depression stayed relatively stable across time for most groups, the low income-low savings group reported significantly higher levels of probable depression at T2, compared to T1, and the high income-low savings group reported significantly higher levels of probable depression at T3 than T1. The weighted average of probable depression across time was 42.9% for low income-low savings groups, 24.3% for high income-low savings groups, 19.4% for low income-high savings groups, and 14.0% for high income-high savings groups. Efforts to ameliorate both savings and income may be necessary to mitigate the mental health consequences of pandemics.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，美国成年人的抑郁患病率总体较高，资产较少的人群尤其如此。基于之前关于资产与心理健康的研究，我们根据收入和储蓄情况，记录了 COVID-19 大流行前两年期间各群体的抑郁负担。本研究使用了一项针对美国成年人（N=1271）的全国代表性纵向面板研究，该研究于 2020 年 4 月至 5 月（T1）、2021 年 4 月至 5 月（T2）和 2022 年 4 月至 5 月（T3）进行数据收集，我们使用广义估计方程（GEE）估计了在 COVID-19 大流行期间任何时候报告可能患有抑郁症的调整后几率。我们通过四个资产组（根据收入中位数（≥65000 美元）和储蓄（≥20000 美元）类别定义）来探索可能患有抑郁症的情况，该情况定义为患者健康问卷-9（PHQ-9）得分为≥10。2020 年春季、2021 年春季和 2022 年春季的可能患有抑郁症的比例一直很高，2022 年春季有 27.9%的美国成年人报告可能患有抑郁症。我们发现，在 COVID-19 大流行期间，有四个不同的资产组经历了不同的抑郁轨迹。低收入低储蓄资产组在整个时间内的可能患有抑郁症的比例最高，与高收入高储蓄资产组相比，任何时候报告可能患有抑郁症的几率为 3.7 倍（95%CI：2.6，5.3）。尽管大多数群体的可能患有抑郁症的比例在整个时间内相对稳定，但低收入低储蓄群体在 T2 时报告的可能患有抑郁症的水平明显高于 T1，而高收入低储蓄群体在 T3 时报告的可能患有抑郁症的水平明显高于 T1。低收入低储蓄群体的可能患有抑郁症的加权平均值为 42.9%，高收入低储蓄群体为 24.3%，低收入高储蓄群体为 19.4%，高收入高储蓄群体为 14.0%。为减轻大流行对心理健康的影响，可能需要同时改善储蓄和收入。
