The impact of COVID-19 lockdown announcements on mental health: quasi-natural experiment in Lombardy, Italy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Evidence showed that mental health problems have risen markedly during COVID-19. It is unclear if part of the mental sufferings relates to the climate of uncertainty and confusion originated from rough communication by health officials and politicians. Here, we test the impact of unanticipated policy announcements of lockdown policies on mental health of the older population.

Methods

We used a representative telephone-based survey of 4400 people aged 65 years or older in Italy's Lombardy region to compare information on self-reported symptoms of anxiety, depression and poor-quality sleep of subjects interviewed on the days of the policy announcement with that of subjects interviewed on other days. We used regression models adjusting for potential socio-demographic

SUBMITTER: Wang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9159307 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature