IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i15p8017-d603930.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Study of the Association between the Stringency of Covid-19 Government Measures and Depression in Older Adults across Europe and Israel

Author

Listed:
  • Gina Voss

    (Communication and Society Research Centre, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Andreia F. Paiva

    (Communication and Society Research Centre, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Alice Delerue Matos

    (Communication and Society Research Centre, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
    Department of Sociology, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

Background : The COVID-19 pandemic is having major adverse consequences for the mental health of individuals worldwide. Alongside the direct impact of the virus on individuals, government responses to tackling its spread, such as quarantine, lockdown, and physical distancing measures, have been found to have a profound impact on mental health. This is manifested in an increased prevalence of anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances. As older adults are more vulnerable and severely affected by the pandemic, they may be at increased psychological risk when seeking to protect themselves from COVID-19. Methods : Our study aims to quantify the association between the stringency of measures and increased feelings of sadness/depression in a sample of 31,819 Europeans and Israelis aged 65 and above. We hypothesize that more stringent measures make it more likely that individuals will report increased feelings of sadness or depression. Conclusions : We found that more stringent measures across countries in Europe and Israel affect the mental health of older individuals. The prevalence of increased feelings of sadness/depression was higher in Southern European countries, where the measures were more stringent. We therefore recommend paying particular attention to the possible effects of pandemic control measures on the mental health of older people.

Suggested Citation

  • Gina Voss & Andreia F. Paiva & Alice Delerue Matos, 2021. "A Study of the Association between the Stringency of Covid-19 Government Measures and Depression in Older Adults across Europe and Israel," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-12, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:15:p:8017-:d:603930
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/8017/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/8017/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cuiyan Wang & Riyu Pan & Xiaoyang Wan & Yilin Tan & Linkang Xu & Cyrus S. Ho & Roger C. Ho, 2020. "Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Pedro Silva Moreira & Sónia Ferreira & Beatriz Couto & Mafalda Machado-Sousa & Marcos Fernández & Catarina Raposo-Lima & Nuno Sousa & Maria Picó-Pérez & Pedro Morgado, 2021. "Protective Elements of Mental Health Status during the COVID-19 Outbreak in the Portuguese Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-10, February.
    3. James Banks & Xiaowei Xu, 2020. "The Mental Health Effects of the First Two Months of Lockdown during the COVID‐19 Pandemic in the UK," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 685-708, September.
    4. Kim Usher & Navjot Bhullar & Debra Jackson, 2020. "Life in the pandemic: Social isolation and mental health," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(15-16), pages 2756-2757, August.
    5. Tetsuya Yamamoto & Chigusa Uchiumi & Naho Suzuki & Junichiro Yoshimoto & Eric Murillo-Rodriguez, 2020. "The Psychological Impact of ‘Mild Lockdown’ in Japan during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Survey under a Declared State of Emergency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-19, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lepinteur, Anthony & Rebechi, Alessio & Clark, Andrew E. & D'Ambrosio, Conchita & Rohde, Nicholas & Vögele, Claus, 2024. "Loneliness during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Five European Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 17223, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Okafor, Luke & Yan, Eric, 2022. "Covid-19 vaccines, rules, deaths, and tourism recovery," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Yastrebov, Gordey & Maskileyson, Dina, 2022. "The effect of COVID-19 confinement and economic support measures on the mental health of older population in Europe and Israel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. José Pais-Ribeiro & Alexandra Ferreira-Valente & Margarida Jarego & Elisabet Sánchez-Rodríguez & Jordi Miró, 2022. "COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal: Psychosocial and Health-Related Factors Associated with Psychological Discomfort," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Bahal, Girish & Iyer, Sriya & Shastry, Kishen & Shrivastava, Anand, 2023. "Religion, Covid-19 and mental health," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    3. Josianne Scerri & Alexei Sammut & Sarah Cilia Vincenti & Paulann Grech & Michael Galea & Christian Scerri & Daniela Calleja Bitar & Stephania Dimech Sant, 2021. "Reaching out for Help: Calls to a Mental Health Helpline Prior to and during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-10, April.
    4. Liliana Dumitrache & Elena Stănculescu & Mariana Nae & Daniela Dumbrăveanu & Gabriel Simion & Ana Maria Taloș & Alina Mareci, 2021. "Post-Lockdown Effects on Students’ Mental Health in Romania: Perceived Stress, Missing Daily Social Interactions, and Boredom Proneness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-17, August.
    5. Mduduzi Colani Shongwe & Song-Lih Huang, 2021. "Suicidal Ideation and Predictors of Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Eswatini: A Population-Based Household Telephone Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Ana Daniela Costa & Afonso Fernandes & Sónia Ferreira & Beatriz Couto & Mafalda Machado-Sousa & Pedro Moreira & Pedro Morgado & Maria Picó-Pérez, 2022. "How Long Does Adaption Last for? An Update on the Psychological Impact of the Confinement in Portugal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-7, February.
    7. Wen-Ling Hung & Hsiang-Te Liu, 2022. "Causal Model Analysis of Police Officers’ COVID-19 Fear, Resistance to Organizational Change Effect on Emotional Exhaustion and Insomnia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-18, August.
    8. Francisco Sampaio & Susana Gaspar & César Fonseca & Manuel José Lopes & Teresa Paiva & Lara Guedes de Pinho, 2023. "Sleep Quality between Nurses and the General Population during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal: What Are the Differences?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(8), pages 1-10, April.
    9. Víctor-Raúl López-Ruiz & José Luis Alfaro-Navarro & Nuria Huete-Alcocer & Domingo Nevado-Peña, 2022. "Psychological and Social Vulnerability in Spaniards’ Quality of Life in the Face of COVID-19: Age and Gender Results," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Wachiranun Sirikul & Krongporn Ongprasert & Chanodom Piankusol & Penprapa Siviroj, 2021. "Maternal Mental Health under COVID-19 Pandemic in Thailand," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Sara Esteban-Gonzalo & María Caballero-Galilea & Juan Luis González-Pascual & Miguel Álvaro-Navidad & Laura Esteban-Gonzalo, 2021. "Anxiety and Worries among Pregnant Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multilevel Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-15, June.
    12. Yun-Ming Tang & Tsung-Lin Wu & Hsiang-Te Liu, 2023. "Causal Model Analysis of the Effect of Formalism, Fear of Infection, COVID-19 Stress on Firefighters’ Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome and Insomnia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-15, January.
    13. Foliano, Francesca & Tonei, Valentina & Sevilla, Almudena, 2024. "Social restrictions, leisure and well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    14. J. Pierre Zila-Velasque & Pamela Grados-Espinoza & Naomi Coba-Villan & Jocelyn Quispe-Chamorro & Yesenia F. Taipe-Guillén & Estefany Pacheco & Laura Ccasa-Valero & Virgilio E. Failoc-Rojas & Cristian , 2022. "Mental Disorders and Level of Resilience in Eight High-Altitude Cities of Peru during the Second Pandemic Wave: A Multicenter Population-Based Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-19, December.
    15. Hee-Kyung Kim, 2022. "In the COVID-19 Era, Effects of Job Stress, Coping Strategies, Meaning in Life and Resilience on Psychological Well-Being of Women Workers in the Service Sector," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-15, August.
    16. Isabel Mercader Rubio & Pilar Sánchez-López & Nieves Gutiérrez Ángel & Nieves Fátima Oropesa Ruiz, 2022. "Psychological Consequences of Fear of COVID-19: Symptom Analysis of Triggered Anxiety and Depression Disorders in Adolescents and Young Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-8, October.
    17. S. Brent Jackson & Kathryn T. Stevenson & Lincoln R. Larson & M. Nils Peterson & Erin Seekamp, 2021. "Outdoor Activity Participation Improves Adolescents’ Mental Health and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-18, March.
    18. Piotr Długosz & Damian Liszka & Anastasiia Bastrakova & Luydmila Yuzva, 2022. "Health Problems of Students during Distance Learning in Central and Eastern Europe: A Cross-Sectional Study of Poland and Ukraine," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-16, August.
    19. Ruta Clair & Maya Gordon & Matthew Kroon & Carolyn Reilly, 2021. "The effects of social isolation on well-being and life satisfaction during pandemic," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-6, December.
    20. Raquel Lara & Martha Fernández-Daza & Sara Zabarain-Cogollo & María Angustias Olivencia-Carrión & Manuel Jiménez-Torres & María Demelza Olivencia-Carrión & Adelaida Ogallar-Blanco & Débora Godoy-Izqui, 2021. "Active Coping and Anxiety Symptoms during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spanish Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-17, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:15:p:8017-:d:603930. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.