Young people experience highest levels of loneliness during COVID-19 lockdown

People under the age of 30 and those with a history of mental illness experience the highest levels of loneliness and anxiety during the COVID-19 lockdown. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen and their international collaborators are studying how mental health is being affected by the pandemic across Europe.

Afraid of losing your job, worrying that you or a loved one will get sick, and dating online with family and friends that you haven’t seen in months. The COVID-19 lockdown has completely changed the day-to-day lives of most people around the world. Physical distancing is the new normal and an extremely important tool in the fight against the pandemic.

However, the mental health effects of foreclosure are alarming – especially for young people under the age of 30 and those with pre-existing mental health issues. This is the conclusion of a new study from the University of Copenhagen, University College London, Sorbonne University, INSERM and the University of Groningen. The study is based on data from 200,000 citizens across Europe.

As part of the COVID-Minds collaborative network, researchers collected and analyzed mental health data from four different countries (Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) during the first lockdown in the spring and early in the year. summer 2020.

We have studied different mental health factors such as loneliness, anxiety and worries related to COVID-19. The highest levels of loneliness have been observed among young people and people with pre-existing mental illness. “

Tibor V. Varga, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen

“Psychological stress is a significant risk factor for serious and long-term future mental illness. Therefore, it is very important to know how lockdowns affect people, so that we have a better chance of preventing long term consequences.

The researchers suggest that the subgroups identified by the study as particularly prone to experience loneliness and anxiety should be monitored closely to avoid future challenges.

Mental health should be a concern alongside controlling the virus

The study consists of mental health data from 200,000 citizens across the four European countries during the first lockdown (March 2020 to June 2020). Across all four countries, the highest levels of loneliness and anxiety were seen in March and early April, when the lockdown began. These results slowly abated over the next few months as countries gradually reopened.

Even though the four countries have taken different approaches to dealing with the pandemic, it appears that the responses to mental health are quite similar and very important to consider to avoid long-term consequences.

“Mental health has become a fairly significant side concern of this pandemic. While of course we need to contain the spread of the virus and deal with the obvious emergencies at hand, we also need to pay attention to the potentially damaging psychiatric consequences, ” says Professor Naja Hulvej Rod of the Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health. and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

“People under 30 and people with a history of mental illness could benefit from appropriate public health interventions to prevent or counter the negative effects of the pandemic.”

The ‘Standing Together – Remotely’ research project is continuously collecting Danish data to track mental health status and consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data gathered from June 2020 to today confirms study results: Lockdown negatively impacts anxiety, loneliness and worries about COVID-19.