Loneliness associates strongly with anxiety and depression during the COVID pandemic, especially in men and younger adults.

ABSTRACT: Loneliness is associated with major depressive disorder (MDD), and likely also with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). It is unclear if these associations are moderated by age, sex, or genetic susceptibility for MDD. We included 75,279 individuals from the Lifelines COVID-19 study, a longitudinal study of a Dutch population-based cohort. Participants completed up to sixteen digital questionnaires between March 2020 and January 2021, yielding a total of 616,129 observations. Loneliness was assessed with the Three-Item Loneliness Scale, and MDD and GAD with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. We used generalized estimating equations to investigate the association between loneliness and MDD and GAD, and whether this association varied across time, age, sex and MDD polygenic ri

SUBMITTER: Steen OD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9178936 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature