In a new study, researchers found people who have or had COVID-19 symptoms are more likely to develop general psychiatric disorders and are lonelier, with women and young people more at risk.
They also found having a job and living with a partner are strong protective factors against general psychiatric disorders and loneliness.
The research was conducted by a team at Cambridge Judge Business School and elsewhere.
Although there has been previous research on specific coronavirus-related disorders such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia, prior to this research scientists knew little about the broader psychological impact of the pandemic on a wider population.
Only focusing on specific disorders underestimates the psychiatric burdens of the pandemic in more subtle forms and overlooks the needs for psychiatric care of the people who have not been clinically diagnosed.
The study measures general psychiatric disorders based on the 12 items in the widely accepted General Health Questionnaire, which looks at factors ranging from depressive anxiety symptoms to confidence to overall happiness.
Loneliness was assessed by a question adapted from the English Longitudinal Study on Aging about how often respondents felt lonely in the previous four weeks.
The team found that 29% of all respondents or more on a five-point scale for general psychiatric disorders, while 36% of respondents sometimes or often feel lonely.
Further analysis showed that those who have or had coronavirus symptoms were more likely to have such disorders or feel lonely.
The team says people with current or past COVID-19 symptoms were perhaps more likely to develop general psychiatric disorders because they are more anxious about infection, and their greater loneliness may reflect the fact that they were isolated from family and friends.
Women and young people (aged 18-30) who responded were much more at risk from general psychiatric disorders and loneliness, which the study says may reflect the fact that, compared to older people, these younger people’s social and economic lives are more disrupted by the public health crisis.
Having a job and living with a partner are both significant protective factors, which suggested further research into how social support from work and family buffer the psychological impacts of a pandemic.
The study is published in Psychiatry Research.
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