ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2022
Mental distress among young adults in Great Britain: long-term trends and early changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trends in psychological distress among adolescents in Ireland: survey data from 2018 to 2023 & lived experience perspective.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Seasonal differences in depressive affect, worry-related sleep disturbance, and low energy among UK young people.PloS one · 2026Article
- Changes in mental health of adolescents during three months of the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal study.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- The Ability of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-5 to Identify Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder in the General Population.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Longitudinal association between psychological distress and mask-wearing post COVID-19 among psychiatric outpatients in Japan.PloS one · 2025Article
- Sickness absence trajectories among young and early midlife employees with psychological distress: the contributions of social and health-related factors in a longitudinal register linkage study.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2025Article
- Evolving sex-specific trends in mental health-related emergency department visits (2010-2023): insights from 643 French general hospitals.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Decoding depression by exploring the exposome-genome edge amidst COVID-19 lockdown.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The youth mental health crisis: analysis and solutions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Trends in psychological distress in Great Britain, 1991-2019: evidence from three representative surveys.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2023Article
- OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 2: changes in primary care clinical activity in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Article
- Mental health inequalities during the second COVID-19 wave among Millennials who grew up in England: Evidence from the Next Steps cohort study.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
- Is the self-reporting of mental health problems sensitive to public stigma towards mental illness? A comparison of time trends across English regions (2009-19).Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2023Article
- Prevalence and predictors of psychological distress before, during, and after a COVID-19 pandemic wave in Switzerland, 2021.Journal of psychiatric research · 2023Article
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Young Adults' Mental Health in Switzerland: A Longitudinal Cohort Study from 2018 to 2021.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Predicting resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United Kingdom: Cross-sectional and longitudinal results.PloS one · 2023Article
- Article
- Mental health and COVID-19 in a general population cohort in Spain (COVICAT study).Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2022Article
- COVID-19-related stress, exercise, and oral health-related quality of life among community-dwelling older adults who participated in the CHEER Iwamizawa project, Japan.Scientific reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeIn Great Britain, few studies documented mental health trends in young adults in the years preceding 2020, the mental health dimensions affected, and how these compare with changes observed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsLong-term trends in mental health among 16-34 year old men and women between 1991 and 2018, and changes between 2018-19 and July-September 2020 were examined using all waves from the British Household Panel Study (1991-2008), the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009-20), and the first five UKHLS COVID-19 waves administered in April, May, June, July, and September 2020. Findings are based on the GHQ-12 continuous score (0-36), clinically significant cases (4 + /12) and severe cases (7 + /12) for mental distress, and item endorsements.
resultsBetween 1991 and 2018, the prevalence of cases (4 + /12) increased from 14-22% to 19-32% across groups. Increases were largest in women aged 16-24. In April 2020, the risk of caseness (4 + /12) increased across groups by 55% to 80% compared to the 2018-19 baseline. This increase, however, rapidly diminished over time: in July-September 2020, there was only a higher risk of caseness (4 + /12) in men aged 25-34 (prevalence ratio = 1.29, 95% CI 1.01-1.65) compared to the 2018-19 baseline.
conclusionWhereas distress surged in April 2020, its return to pre-pandemic levels by September 2020 highlights the nuanced impact that the pandemic may have over time. Given the magnitude of the decline in mental health over the past decade, attention must be given to young adults once the pandemic ends.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.