Depression, anxiety and stress during the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a New Zealand cohort study on mental well-being

ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to daily life. This study investigated depression, anxiety and stress in New Zealand (NZ) during the first 10 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated psychological and behavioural factors. It also compares the results with a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ open 2021-05, Vol.11 (5), p.e045325-e045325
Main Authors: Gasteiger, Norina, Vedhara, Kavita, Massey, Adam, Jia, Ru, Ayling, Kieran, Chalder, Trudie, Coupland, Carol, Broadbent, Elizabeth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Anxiety
Anxiety - epidemiology
Anxiety disorders
Cohort analysis
Cohort Studies
COVID-19
Cross-Sectional Studies
depression & mood disorders
Depression - epidemiology
Female
Humans
Mental depression
Mental Health
Middle Aged
New Zealand - epidemiology
Pandemics
Public health
SARS-CoV-2
Social networks
Stress, Psychological - epidemiology
Websites
Well being
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to daily life. This study investigated depression, anxiety and stress in New Zealand (NZ) during the first 10 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, and associated psychological and behavioural factors. It also compares the results with a similar cross-sectional study in the UK.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingNZ community cohort.ParticipantsN=681 adults (≥18 years) in NZ. The cohort was predominantly female (89%) with a mean age of 42 years (range 18–87). Most (74%) identified as NZ European and almost half (46%) were keyworkers. Most were non-smokers (95%) and 20% identified themselves as having clinical risk factors which would put them at increased or greatest risk of COVID-19.Main outcome measuresDepression, anxiety, stress, positive mood and engagement in health behaviours (smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption).ResultsDepression and anxiety significantly exceeded population norms (p
ISSN:2044-6055
2044-6055
DOI:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045325