ArticleThe British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science2022
The impact of shielding during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health: evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
Article in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Partnership Quality and Mental Health Among Older Adults in England Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2026Article
- Transferable learning from pandemic experiences: impacts, adaptations and capacity for resilience within households, communities and organisations.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Understanding the Psychological Impacts of Shielding From COVID-19 for Immunocompromised Individuals.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Mental health in adults aged 50+ since the COVID-19 pandemic: Are we (all) back to 'normal'? evidence from England.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2026Article
- Features influencing the health and economic impact of preventing COVID-19 in immunocompromised individuals.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Past trends and future projections of psychological distress among general population in Finland.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma incidence: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Skin health and disease · 2024Article
- Psychosocial Health Among Young Adults With Kidney Failure: A Longitudinal Follow-up of the SPEAK (Surveying Patients Experiencing Young Adult Kidney Failure) Study.Kidney medicine · 2024Article
- The indignities of shielding during the COVID-19 pandemic for people with sickle cell disorders: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.Frontiers in sociology · 2024Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on immunocompromised populations during the Omicron era: insights from the observational population-based INFORM study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 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
- Adaptation to changes in COVID-19 pandemic severity: Across older adulthood and time scales.Psychology and aging · 2023Article
- Article
- Changes in retirement plans in the English older population during the COVID-19 pandemic: The roles of health factors and financial insecurity.European journal of ageing · 2023Article
- Article
- Mental health and life satisfaction among those advised to shield during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK: a secondary analysis of the Understanding Society longitudinal study.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- The "loneliness epidemic", intersecting risk factors and relations to mental health help-seeking: A population-based study during COVID-19 lockdown in Canada.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
- Healthcare utilisation, physical activity and mental health during COVID-19 lockdown: an interrupted time-series analysis of older adults in England.European journal of ageing · 2022Article
- Mental health and self-rated health of older carers during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from England.Aging & mental healthArticle
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2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, older and clinically vulnerable people were instructed to shield or stay at home. Policies restricting social contact and human interaction pose a risk to mental health, but we know very little about the impact of shielding and stay-at-home orders on the mental health of older people.
aimsTo understand the extent to which shielding contributes to poorer mental health.
methodWe used longitudinal data from wave 9 (2018/2019) and two COVID-19 sub-studies (June/July 2020; November/December 2020) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, and constructed logistic and linear regression models to investigate associations between patterns of shielding during the pandemic and mental health, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, pre-pandemic physical and mental health, and social isolation measures.
resultsBy December 2020, 70% of older people were still shielding or staying at home, with 5% shielding throughout the first 9 months of the pandemic. Respondents who shielded experienced worse mental health. Although prior characteristics and lack of social interactions explain some of this association, even controlling for all covariates, those shielding throughout had higher odds of reporting elevated depressive symptoms (odds ratio 1.87, 95% CI 1.22-2.87) and lower quality of life (β = -1.28, 95% CI -2.04 to -0.52) than those who neither shielded nor stayed at home. Shielding was also associated with increased anxiety.
conclusionsShielding seems associated with worse mental health among older people, highlighting the need for policy makers to address the mental health needs of those who shielded, both in the current pandemic and for the future.
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