ArticleBJPsych open2023
Mental health in Germany in the first weeks of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Article in BJPsych open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 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
21 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prospective cohort study for digital health research in Germany (DigiHero): objectives, design and baseline characteristics.European journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Validation of the Turkish Fear of War Scale (FOWARS): Psychometric Evidence and Associations with Tolerance of Uncontrollability, Psychological Symptoms, and Personality Traits.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Longitudinal evaluation of the psychometric stability of the somatic symptom scale-8 (SSS-8) in a large German general population sample.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Changes in Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Data From the German National Cohort (NAKO) for the Years 2014–2022.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2026Observational
- Mental health in the time of polycrisis: geopolitical determinants and modern psychiatry.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Article
- 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
- Media Exposure and Vicarious Trauma: Italian Adaptation and Validation of the Media Vicarious Traumatization Scale and Its Impact on Young Adults' Mental Health in Relation to Contemporary Armed Conflicts.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Review
- Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective.JMIR mental health · 2025Article
- Development and Validation of the War Worry Scale (WWS) in a Sample of Italian Young Adults: An Instrument to Assess Worry About War in Non-War-Torn Environments.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Household transmission of Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 under conditions of hybrid immunity-a prospective study in Germany.Infection · 2025Article
- Psychometric evaluation and community norms of the GAD-7, based on a representative German sample.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Russia's invasion of Ukraine and perceived intergenerational mobility in Europe.The British journal of sociology · 2024Article
- Compounded Effects of Multiple Global Crises on Mental Health: A Longitudinal Study of East German Adults.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Cognitive and Relational Processes Associated to Mental Health in Italian High School Students during COVID-19 and Russian-Ukrainian War Outbreaks.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- How Is the Fear of War Impacting Italian Young Adults' Mental Health? The Mediating Role of Future Anxiety and Intolerance of Uncertainty.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2024Article
- Fear of war in Germany: An observational study.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Regional Differences in Uptake of Vaccination against COVID-19 and Influenza in Germany: Results from the DigiHero Cohort.Vaccines · 2023Article
- Anxiety, depressive symptoms, and distress over the course of the war in Ukraine in three federal states in Germany.Frontiers in psychiatry · 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
14 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn the connected world, although societies are not directly involved in a military conflict, they are exposed to media reports of violence.
aimsWe assessed the effects of such exposures on mental health in Germany during the military conflict in Ukraine.
methodWe used the German population-based cohort for digital health research, DigiHero, launching a survey on the eighth day of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Of the 27 509 cohort participants from the general population, 19 444 (70.7%) responded within 17 days. We measured mental health and fear of the impact of war compared with other fears (natural disasters or health-related).
resultsIn a subsample of 4441 participants assessed twice, anxiety in the population (measured by the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 screener) was higher in the first weeks of war than during the strongest COVID-19 restrictions. Anxiety was elevated across the whole age spectrum, and the mean was above the cut-off for mild anxiety. Over 95% of participants expressed various degrees of fear of the impact of war, whereas the percentage for other investigated fears was 0.47-0.82. A one-point difference in the fear of the impact of war was associated with a 2.5 point (95% CI 2.42-2.58) increase in anxiety (11.9% of the maximum anxiety score). For emotional distress, the increase was 0.67 points (0.66-0.68) (16.75% of the maximum score).
conclusionsThe population in Germany reacted to the Russo-Ukrainian war with substantial distress, exceeding reactions during the strongest restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic. Fear of the impact of war was associated with worse mental health.
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.