Longitudinal associations between going outdoors and mental health and wellbeing during a COVID-19 lockdown in the UK.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic led to national lockdowns in countries around the world. Whilst lockdowns were shown to be effective in reducing the spread of disease, they were also associated with adverse effects on people's mental health and wellbeing. Previous studies have suggested that time spent outside may have played a role in mitigating these negative effects, but research on this topic remains limited. Therefore, this study was designed to explore the longitudinal associations between going outdoors and people's mental health and wellbeing during the first national lockdown (March-May 2020) in the UK. Data from 35,301 participants from the COVID-19 Social Study were analysed. Fixed effects regression was used to explore the longitudinal association between changes in going outdoors (the n

SUBMITTER: Stock S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9216298 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature