Characteristics of mental health stability during COVID-19: An online survey with people residing in a city region of the North West of England

  1. Katalin Ujhelyi Gomez
  2. Rhiannon Corcoran
  3. Adele Ring
  4. Shaima Hassan
  5. Katherine Abba
  6. Jennifer Downing
  7. Mark Goodall
  8. Mark Gabbay
  9. Pam Clarke
  10. Paul Moran
  11. Dorcas Akeju OBE
  12. Kate M. Bennett

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Abstract

Despite the significant mental health challenges the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated government measures have presented, research has shown that the majority of people have adapted and coped well. The aim of this study was i) to determine the proportion of people with mental stability and volatility during the pandemic in a North West England city region sample and ii) to establish group differences in psychosocial variables. Mental stability and volatility refer to the extent to which individuals reported change in levels of common mental health symptoms over the course of 12 weeks. No change in mental health over the 12 weeks reflected mental stability whilst change in mental health reflected mental volatility.

Method

A two-wave-online survey (N = 163) was used to explore the psychological and social impact of the pandemic on relatively disadvantaged neighbourhoods within the region. The data collected represents 12 weeks of individual pandemic experience between mid-June and mid-December 2020. A three-level composite common mental health change variable was created combining self-reported anxiety and depression to group stable, volatile, and very volatile individuals in terms of the changeability of their mental health. Kruskal-Wallis with post-hoc tests were used to determine how people with mental stability and volatility differed on factors categorised within an ecological framework of resilience (individual, community, societal, and COVID-19 specific).

Results

Individuals categorised as ‘stable’ in terms of mental health symptoms (63.6%) had better mental and physical health; were more tolerant of uncertainty; and reported higher levels of resilience and wellbeing compared to ‘very volatile’ people (19.8%). These individuals also reported feeling less socially isolated, experienced a greater sense of belonging to their community which was more likely to fulfil their needs, and were more likely to have access to green space nearby for their recommended daily exercise. ‘Stable’ individuals did not report worrying any more during the pandemic than usual and tolerated uncertainty better compared to those in the ‘volatile’ group.

Implications

The majority of participants in this sample were mentally stable and coping well with the challenges presented by the pandemic. The resilience of these individuals was related to key place-based factors such as a strong sense of community and useable local assets. The data showcase the role of place-based social determinants in supporting resilience and thereby highlight key preventative measures for public mental health during times of international crisis.

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  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0266153
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.03.17.22272479: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: Ethical approval was granted by the University of Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee (7739).
    Consent: Informed consent was collected at the beginning of the first survey.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Automated reminders to complete the current wave of the survey were generated through the JISC software.
    JISC
    suggested: (JISC, RRID:SCR_011331)
    The analyses were conducted in IBM SPSS Statistics version 26.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Strengths and Limitations: In addition to inviting participants from the CLAHRC NWC HHS 43, recruitment was extended to utilise local and social media which boosted participation in the study. This recruitment strategy ensured the recruitment of a sample from varied neighbourhoods (Table 1) including the most deprived areas of the city region, 55. The high levels of IMD in this sample may reflect the high levels of IMD in this region compared to the national profile, which may explain the lack of significant findings with regard to sociodemographic characteristics 55. Despite the extended recruitment, the week 1 survey sample was relatively small (N=290) and it was further reduced by high attrition in the 12-week follow-up (N=163). Additionally, a high proportion of the participants were women, individuals of white ethnic background (representative of the city region demographic), higher educated, and only the digitally enabled would have the capacity to complete the survey. These are common features of online surveys, which reduce the representativeness of the sample 56. The survey included only self-report measures, which are prone to bias. There was a very low rate of COVID-19 infections among the participants. A sample with a higher infection rate might have struggled more to cope and presented with worse mental health. Additionally, those with more mental health or other adversity, and those who have returned to work when restrictions were eased might have been less like...

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2022.03.17.22272479v1 on medRxiv