ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2022
Depression deterioration of older adults during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Changes in mental health outcomes of middle-aged and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review.PloS one · 2026Article
- Childhood living conditions as predictors of self-rated health status in middle-aged and older adults: Evidence from a machine learning analysis in 27 high-income countries.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Psychological Distress in Older Adults Living in Puerto Rico during COVID-19.Journal of cross-cultural gerontology · 2025Article
- The Prevalence of Depression among the Global Public in the Context of the COVID-19 Epidemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Iranian journal of public health · 2024Review
- The family as provider of intergenerational support during COVID-19: a study into the mental health consequences for 65+ Europeans.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Driving the determinants of older people's mental health in the context of urban resilience: a scoping review.BMC geriatrics · 2023Article
- Pre-pandemic trajectories of depressive symptomatology and their relation to depression during the COVID-19 pandemic: longitudinal study of English older people.BJPsych open · 2023Article
- The effects of COVID-19-era unemployment and business closures upon the physical and mental health of older Europeans: Mediation through financial circumstances and social activity.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- A scoping review of the impacts of COVID-19 physical distancing measures on vulnerable population groups.Nature communications · 2023Article
- An elderly patient with depression and a suicide attempt during the COVID-19 pandemic: a case report.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Gender and Psychosocial Differences in Psychological Resilience among a Community of Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleDetermining who is particularly vulnerable to mental health deterioration during the COVID-19 pandemic is essential when designing and targeting interventions to mitigate the adverse psychological impacts of the outbreak. Older people have appeared to be less exposed to mental health deterioration compared with younger individuals, but most exposed to the risk of severe illness and death from the virus, as well as less equipped to use technologies for coping with lockdown measures.
objectiveAmongst the old population, we aim at determining how depressive symptoms have changed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and identifying individual risk factors associated with changes in reporting depression. We are particularly interested in exploring the role of pre-existing mental health problems and evaluating gender differences.
methodData come from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, in particular from the first COVID-19 survey administered in summer 2020. Logistic models are estimated and Average Marginal Effects computed to take the degree of individual unobserved heterogeneity into account comparing point estimates across samples. Multiple Imputation (implemented through Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations) is used to replace missing data. Statistical power of the effect sizes is estimated by a simulation approach.
resultsPre-existing mental health problems, a diagnosis of affective/emotional disorders, a recent diagnosis of a major illness, and (only for men) job loss during the first wave of the outbreak are the most important risk factors. Statistical differences between genders emerge, with women experiencing higher levels of depression and greater worsening of mental health than men.
conclusionsTo identify people at greater risk of depression deterioration during an outbreak it is very important to consider their pre-existing mental and general health, distinguishing severity level. On population level, it is also crucial to evaluate depression disorders separately by gender.
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