COVID-19 pandemic: every day feels like a weekday to most
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Abstract
The COVID-19 outbreak has clear clinical 1 and economic 2 impacts, but also affects behaviors e.g. through social distancing 3 , and may increase stress and anxiety. However, while case numbers are tracked daily 4 , we know little about the psychological effects of the outbreak on individuals in the moment. Here we examine the psychological and behavioral shifts over the initial stages of the outbreak in the United States in an observational longitudinal study. Through GPS phone data we find that homestay is increasing, while being at work dropped precipitously. Using regular real-time experiential surveys, we observe an overall increase in stress and mood levels which is similar in size to the weekend vs. weekday differences. As there is a significant difference between weekday and weekend mood and stress levels, this is an important decrease in wellbeing. For some, especially those affected by job loss, the mental health impact is severe.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.11.20098228: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: All study protocols were approved by Northwestern University’s Institutional Review Board.
Consent: Data Availability: The data are not publicly available due to them containing information that could compromise research participant privacy and consent, but derived and de-identified self-report data will be made available through the NIMH Data Archive at the conclusion of the study.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share …
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.11.20098228: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: All study protocols were approved by Northwestern University’s Institutional Review Board.
Consent: Data Availability: The data are not publicly available due to them containing information that could compromise research participant privacy and consent, but derived and de-identified self-report data will be made available through the NIMH Data Archive at the conclusion of the study.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:It is important to note the sampling limitations of our study. Our participants are recruited from a research panel and are not wholly representative of national demographics. In particular, our sample over-represents females and individuals with previously diagnosed depression (Table 1). We also note that our analysis is based on completed EMAs for each individual and does not account for missed surveys. The survey response rate dropped in the week post declaration of emergency compared to previous weeks (75% response rate to 65% response rate), so it is possible that the participants most affected by the crisis are self-censoring16. Furthermore, as we only look at short-term effects of the coronavirus crisis, these findings may change as time goes on. We will continue monitoring the longer-term response to the crisis and will report on trends as they emerge. Although it remains to be seen how individuals respond as the coronavirus crisis progresses, these findings suggest that at the population level and on a short time scale, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased stress levels widely, but has not had a uniform impact on mental health. Rather, it is likely concentrated in at-risk groups such as those who have lost employment.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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