Effect of nations' COVID restrictions on mental health varied by type, group
Two studies published yesterday in The Lancet Public Health detail how COVID-19 restrictions moderately affected adults' mental health in 15 nations, with one finding that the type of lockdowns were linked to the level of distress and opinion of the government, and the other suggesting that mental health declined slightly but significantly under lockdown—especially among women.COVID-zero countries had greater freedomsAn international team led by a Simon Fraser University researcher in Canada assessed the stringency of daily public health policies using the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker and psychological distress and life evaluations using the Imperial College London-YouGov COVID 19 Behaviour Tracker Global Survey.Respondents from 15 countries were tracked from Apr 27, 2020, to Jun 28, 2021, when most participants weren't fully vaccinated.
They completed the four-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4) and the single-question Cantril Ladder every 2 weeks.Included countries were Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
The researchers also studied a subset of the Nordic countries, with Sweden following a mitigation strategy, and Denmark, Finland, and Norway adopting an elimination approach.
Australia, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea pursued a COVID-elimination strategy, while the remainder took a mitigation approach.Participants gave 432,642 valid responses, with 14,918 responses every 2 weeks, on average, on following physical distancing guidelines and their views of the government's pandemic response."Because early and targeted action resulted in lower levels of virus circulation, average
United States
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Cases: 46 252 513
Deaths: 750 423
Recovered: 0
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India
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Cases: 34 321 025
Deaths: 459 652
Recovered: 0
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Brazil
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Cases: 21 835 785
Deaths: 608 235
Recovered: 0
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United Kingdom
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Cases: 9 215 683
Deaths: 141 607
Recovered: 0
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Russia
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Cases: 8 494 589
Deaths: 237 619
Recovered: 0
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