Prevalence, severity and distribution of depression and anxiety symptoms using observational data collected before and nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by substantial increases in adverse mental health, particularly among the young. However, it remains unclear to what extent increases in population scores on mental health assessments are due to changes in prevalence, rather than severity of symptoms. Further, it is not obvious that widely used assessments of aggregate symptoms retain their typical interpretation during an event that directly disrupts behavior.

Methods

Pre-pandemic data on workers age 18-69y in the 2019 National Health Interview Survey are reweighted to match distributions of demographic characteristics of Duke University employees surveyed nine months into the pandemic. The latter population was at low risk of infection or economic insecurity. Prevalence

SUBMITTER: Thomas D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8421709 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature