ArticleJournal of health monitoring2022
Depressive symptoms in the general population before and in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of the GEDA 2019/2020 study.
Article in Journal of health monitoring, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 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
9 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antidepressant use in eleven European regions: a comparative time series analysis 2018-2022.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Income, Educational Level, and Depressive Symptoms in a Time of Multiple Crises: Trends Revealed by High-Frequency Mental Health Surveillance in Germany, 2019–2024.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2025Observational
- [Area-level socioeconomic deprivation, socioeconomic status, and depressive symptoms: a multilevel analysis using data from the GEDA 2019/2020 study].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2025Article
- Sexual assault experience, depression, and heavy substance use among German adults: an exploratory mediation analysis.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Type 2 diabetes among people with selected citizenships in Germany: risk, healthcare, complications.Journal of health monitoring · 2024Article
- Community Members' Perceptions of a Resource-Rich Well-Being Website in California During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Qualitative Thematic Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Depression and health literacy among adolescents and adults in Germany: findings from two representative samples.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Determinants of Mental Health Inequalities Among People With Selected Citizenships in Germany.International journal of public health · 2024Article
- Pandemic-induced increase in adjustment disorders among postpartum women in Germany.BMC women's health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Study results on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the first year of the pandemic are contradictory. The GEDA 2019/2020 study makes it possible to examine changes in depressive symptoms in the population. Methods: A standardised telephone interview was used to survey a random sample of the population in Germany aged 15 and older. To exclude seasonal effects, 10,220 interviewees from the period April 2019 to January 2020 were compared with 11,900 from the period April 2020 to January 2021. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the internationally established 8-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8). Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms decreased from 9.2% to 7.6% in the first year of the pandemic. Changes differ between women and men as well as between age and education groups. The analysis of individual symptoms suggests that it is not about a reduction of mental disorders of the depressive type in the narrower sense, but rather a decrease in stress-associated individual symptoms. Conclusions: The decrease in stress-associated depressive symptoms in parts of the population can be interpreted as an indication that pandemic-related changes in everyday life and the working environment may have had a positive effect on individual areas of mental health in certain groups, at least temporarily in the first year of the pandemic. The continuing strong social inequality in depressive symptoms to the disadvantage of low education groups confirms that the need for social situation-related health promotion and prevention with regard to the living and working conditions of socially disadvantaged people must not be lost sight of in times of pandemic. For groups in the population that partly showed a worsening of symptoms in this phase of the pandemic, e.g. the diminished ability to concentrate of very old men, targeted support options should be created in the future.
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.