IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i14p8734-d865293.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Mental Health and Sociodemographic Characteristics on Quality of Life and Life Satisfaction during the Second Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic—Results of a Population-Based Survey in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Alina Geprägs

    (Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, 89075 Ulm, Germany)

  • David Bürgin

    (Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, 89075 Ulm, Germany
    Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Research Department (UPKKJ), Psychiatric University Hospitals, University of Basel, 4002 Basel, Switzerland)

  • Jörg M. Fegert

    (Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, 89075 Ulm, Germany)

  • Elmar Brähler

    (Department for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany
    Integrated Research and Treatment Center Adiposity Diseases, Behavioral Medicine Unit, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Leipzig University Medical Center, 04103 Leipzig, Germany)

  • Vera Clemens

    (Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, 89075 Ulm, Germany)

Abstract

A decreased quality of life was shown for numerous factors at the beginning of the pandemic. However, it is important to identify people who are at-risk for long-term impairments during the pandemic and its aftermath. Within this study, we aimed to investigate quality of life within a German population-based sample (2515 participants; 51.6% female; mean age 50.09 years) during the second year of the pandemic (2021). Our results showed that the majority reported no pandemic-associated change in quality of life at this state of the pandemic. Higher life satisfaction was associated with fewer mental health problems, no pre-existing somatic and psychiatric disorders, higher income, no income loss during the pandemic, living with others, and younger age. In contrast, in a high-risk group encompassing participants with lower quality of life, only mental health, pre-existing somatic disorders, and living alone had significant associations with quality of life, indicating a smaller scope for improvement in this high-risk group. Age, income loss, and depressive symptoms predicted a decrease in quality of life since the beginning of the pandemic. Our results highlight the importance of mental health, especially in times of pandemic, and underline the need for low-threshold mental health support.

Suggested Citation

  • Alina Geprägs & David Bürgin & Jörg M. Fegert & Elmar Brähler & Vera Clemens, 2022. "The Impact of Mental Health and Sociodemographic Characteristics on Quality of Life and Life Satisfaction during the Second Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic—Results of a Population-Based Survey in German," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:14:p:8734-:d:865293
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8734/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/14/8734/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manuel B. Huber & Julia Felix & Martin Vogelmann & Reiner Leidl, 2017. "Health-Related Quality of Life of the General German Population in 2015: Results from the EQ-5D-5L," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-12, April.
    2. Benjamin W Nelson & Adam Pettitt & Jessica E Flannery & Nicholas B Allen, 2020. "Rapid assessment of psychological and epidemiological correlates of COVID-19 concern, financial strain, and health-related behavior change in a large online sample," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, November.
    3. Johanna Katharina Hohls & Hans-Helmut König & Eleanor Quirke & André Hajek, 2021. "Anxiety, Depression and Quality of Life—A Systematic Review of Evidence from Longitudinal Observational Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-26, November.
    4. Vincenzo Alfano & Salvatore Ercolano, 2020. "The Efficacy of Lockdown Against COVID-19: A Cross-Country Panel Analysis," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 509-517, August.
    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. Szymon Szemik & Maksymilian Gajda & Aleksandra Gładyś & Małgorzata Kowalska, 2022. "The Association between COVID-19 Pandemic and the Quality of Life of Medical Students in Silesian Voivodeship, Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-14, September.

    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. Arnab K Ghosh & Sara Venkatraman & Evgeniya Reshetnyak & Mangala Rajan & Anjile An & John K Chae & Mark A Unruh & David Abramson & Charles DiMaggio & Nathaniel Hupert, 2022. "Association between city-wide lockdown and COVID-19 hospitalization rates in multigenerational households in New York City," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Alfano, Vincenzo, 2024. "Unlocking the importance of perceived governance: The impact on COVID-19 in NUTS-2 European regions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 343(C).
    3. Gebka, Bartosz & Kanungo, Rama Prasad & Wildman, John, 2024. "The transition from COVID-19 infections to deaths: Do governance quality and corruption affect it?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 235-253.
    4. Alfano, Vincenzo, 2023. "God or good health? Evidence on belief in God in relation to public health during a pandemic," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    5. Peng, Yi-Ting & Chang, Tsangyao & Ranjbar, Omid & Xiang, Feiyun, 2024. "Has the COVID-19 pandemic shock transmitted to the u.s. stock market: Evidence using bootstrap (A)symmetric fourier granger causality test in quantiles," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Gaggero, Alessio & Mesa-Pedrazas, Ángela & Fernández-Pérez, Ángel, 2024. "Shutting down to save lives: A regression discontinuity analysis of non-essential business closure," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Dupuy, Jules & Barnay, Thomas & Defebvre, Eric, 2024. "Clear as a bell? Policy stringency and elderly health during Covid-19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    8. Caixia Wang & Huijie Li, 2022. "Public Compliance Matters in Evidence-Based Public Health Policy: Evidence from Evaluating Social Distancing in the First Wave of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-13, March.
    9. Zuojin Yu & Aurora B. Le & Alexa Doerr & Todd D. Smith, 2022. "Level of Concern, Spending, and External Support Related to COVID-19: A Comparison between Working and Non-Working Older Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-10, September.
    10. Vincenzo Alfano & Salvatore Ercolano, 2022. "Stay at Home! Governance Quality and Effectiveness of Lockdown," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 101-123, January.
    11. Tehila Refaeli & Netta Achdut, 2021. "Financial Strain and Loneliness among Young Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Psychosocial Resources," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.
    12. Alfano, Vincenzo & Capasso, Salvatore & Ercolano, Salvatore & Goel, Rajeev K., 2022. "Death takes no bribes: Impact of perceived corruption on the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions at combating COVID-19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    13. Natalia Sauer & Agnieszka Sałek & Wojciech Szlasa & Tomasz Ciecieląg & Jakub Obara & Sara Gaweł & Dominik Marciniak & Katarzyna Karłowicz-Bodalska, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Mental Well-Being of College Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-14, April.
    14. Rajeev K. Goel & James R. Jones & James W. Saunoris, 2023. "Explaining vaccine hesitancy: A COVID‐19 study of the United States," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 1073-1087, March.
    15. Alfano, Vincenzo & Ercolano, Salvatore & Pinto, Mauro, 2022. "Carrot and stick: Economic support and stringency policies in response to COVID-19," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Panarello, Demetrio & Tassinari, Giorgio, 2022. "One year of COVID-19 in Italy: are containment policies enough to shape the pandemic pattern?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    17. Alfano, Vincenzo & Cicatiello, Lorenzo & Ercolano, Salvatore, 2023. "Assessing the effectiveness of mandatory outdoor mask policy: The natural experiment of Campania," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    18. López-Mendoza, Héctor & González-Álvarez, María A. & Montañés, Antonio, 2024. "Assessing the effectiveness of international government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    19. Tamás Hajdu & Judit Krekó & Csaba G. Tóth, 2023. "Inequalities in regional excess mortality and life expectancy during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2316, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    20. Iloanusi, Ogechukwu & Ross, Arun, 2021. "Leveraging weather data for forecasting cases-to-mortality rates due to COVID-19," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).

    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:19:y:2022:i:14:p:8734-:d:865293. 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.