ArticlePublic health2023
Depression trajectories during the COVID-19 pandemic in the high-quality health care setting of Switzerland: the COVCO-Basel cohort.
Article in Public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gender Differences in the Protective Effects of Social Participation on Depressive Symptom Trajectories Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- 'Bern, get ready', BEready, a household-based cohort study for pandemic preparedness research in Switzerland: pilot study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Accounting for Mobility in Air Pollution Exposure Estimates in Studies on Long-Term Health Effects.Research report (Health Effects Institute) · 2025Article
- GPS tracking methods for spatiotemporal air pollution exposure assessment: comparison and challenges in study implementation.International journal of health geographics · 2025Article
- How Can Access to Mental Health Services in Switzerland Be Improved in the Aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic?Public health reviews · 2025Article
- Psychological Well-Being in Adults Across the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Two-Year Longitudinal Study.International journal of public health · 2025Article
- A systematic review of individual, social, and societal resilience factors in response to societal challenges and crises.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- COVID-19 and mental distress among health professionals in eight European countries during the third wave: a cross-sectional survey.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Trajectories of pain and depressive symptoms among people living with low back pain during the COVID-19 pandemic: a 24-month longitudinal study.Pain reports · 2024Article
- The Brief Symptom Inventory in the Swiss general population: Presentation of norm scores and predictors of psychological distress.PloS one · 2024Article
- Temporal dynamics of socioeconomic inequalities in depressive and anxiety symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Prevalence and associated factors of depression, anxiety and stress among clinical therapists in China in the context of early COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesDuring the pandemic, Switzerland avoided stringent lockdowns and provided funds to stabilize the economy. To assess whether and in what subgroups the pandemic impacted on depressive symptoms in this specific Swiss context, we derived depression trajectories over an extended pandemic period in a Swiss cohort and related them to individuals' sociodemographic characteristics. STUDY
designThis was a population-based cohort study.
methodsThe population-based COVCO-Basel cohort in North-Western Switzerland invited 112,848 adult residents of whom 12,724 participated at baseline. Between July 2020 and December 2021, 6396 participants answered to additional 18 monthly online questionnaires. Depression symptoms were repeatedly measured by the DASS-21 scale. Group-based Trajectory Models methods were applied to identify clusters of similar depression trajectories. Trajectory clusters were characterized descriptively and with a Multinomial response model.
resultsThree distinct trajectories were identified. The 'Highly affected' trajectory (13%) had a larger presence of younger and female participants with lower average income, higher levels of past depression, and living alone. A majority of individuals in the 'Unaffected' trajectory (52%) were of medium or high average income, older average age, without previous depression symptoms, and not living alone. The 'Moderately affected' trajectory (35%) had a composition intermediate between the two opposite 'extreme' trajectories.
conclusionsThis study is among few studies investigating depression trajectories up to the time when COVID-19 vaccination was readily available to the entire population. During these 18 months of the pandemic, depressive symptoms increased in a substantial percentage of participants. Economic support, high-quality health care system, and moderate containment measures did not sufficiently protect all population subgroups from adverse, potentially long-term psychological pandemic impacts.
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