ArticlePloS one2020
Predictors of mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in the US: Role of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 99 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
99 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Mental disorders following COVID-19 and other epidemics: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Novel insight into the effects of the metabolites from gut microbiota in both unmedicated depressive adolescents and mice: key roles of indole derivatives-aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling in neurogenesis and microglial homeostasis.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Anxiety-Depressive Disorders in 200 Patients with Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: Prevalence and Predictors from a Cross-Sectional Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- The Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health and Social Care Workers.Health economics · 2026Article
- The mental health of US veterans before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: examining the demographic and environmental correlates of courses of distress in the LIGHT cohort.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Non-communicable diseases, COVID-19 and labour market outcomes.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026Article
- Cognitive fitness and mental health outcomes following COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Disparities in COVID-19 Pandemic Worries.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- Young adult grandchildren's intergenerational and digital solidarity with grandparents and depressive symptoms during the pandemic.Family relations · 2025Article
- The great divide between employees: Clustering employee "well-being" during a pandemic.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Depression and anxiety mediate the relationship between COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and tobacco and marijuana use.PloS one · 2025Article
- The perceived COVID-19 pandemic risk and mental distress in China: the mediating role of interpersonal trust and the moderating role of social cohesion.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Associations between local COVID-19 policies and anxiety in the USA: a longitudinal digital cohort study.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Distribution of acute symptoms and long COVID-19 and their association with anxiety and depression 2 years after infection.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Characteristics of sleep disturbance across two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic among nursing staffs.Sleep medicine: X · 2024Article
- Unraveling COVID-19 relationship with anxiety disorders and symptoms using genome-wide data.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Article
- Article
- The association between Long-COVID symptomology, perceived symptom burden and mental health in COVID-19 patients in Shijiazhuang, China: a population-based health survey.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
39 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite the profound health and economic implications of Covid-19, there is only limited knowledge to date about the role of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing for mental health outcomes during the pandemic. We analyze online survey data from the nationally representative "Understanding America Study" (UAS) covering the period of March 10-31st 2020 (sample size: 6,585). Mental health is assessed by the validated PHQ-4 instrument for measuring symptoms of depression and anxiety. About 29% (CI:27.4-.30.4%) of the US adult population reported some depression/anxiety symptoms over the study period, with symptoms deteriorating over the month of March. Worsening mental health was most strongly associated with concerns about the economic consequences of the pandemic, while concerns about the potential implications of the virus for respondents' own health and social distancing also predicted increases in symptoms of depression and anxiety during the early stages of the pandemic in the US, albeit less strongly. Our findings point towards the possibility of a major mental health crisis unfolding simultaneously with the pandemic, with economic concerns being a key driving force of this crisis. These results highlight the likely importance of economic countermeasures and social policy for mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on adult mental health in the US over and above an effective public health response.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.