National Well-Being Measures Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Online Samples
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KEY WORDS: well-being; flourishing; pandemic; COVID-19. J Gen Intern Med DOI: 10.1007/s11606-020-06274-3 © The Author(s) 2020
BACKGROUND
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s lives in countless ways. The impact may extend to physical and mental health; their social relationships; their sense of meaning, identity, and happiness; and their financial stability.
OBJECTIVE
Using a stratified online national sample, representative of the USA on geographic region, gender, generation/age, and race/ethnicity, we report on means of well-being scores in the USA across these various domains of human flourishing1,2 both prior to (January 2020) and following (June 2020) the WHO declaration of pandemic.
76%). Among the survey items, participants responded to 12 well-being items in six flourishing domains (happiness, health, meaning, character, relationships, financial; two indicators per domain) as part of an overall validated flourishing measure.1,2 Items were self-reported scored from zero to ten. Means at b ot h t i m e p eri od s w e r e r ep or t ed a cr o s s t he si x domains (Table 1), and t tests were used to assess changes in scores over time. Means for individual indicator scores at both time periods, and precise item wording, are reported in Table 2. In January 2020, mean scores were approximately seven in each domain, except for financial stability which was lower (Table 1). From January to June 2020, means in flourishing declined overall (− 0.49, 95% CI − 0.61, − 0.37, p < 0.001) and in every domain, except character. The declines were larger for self-reported health (− 0.64, 95% CI − 0.78, − 0.49, p < 0.001), happiness (− 0.74, 95% CI − 0.89, − 0.58, p < 0.001), and financial stability (− 0.95, 95% CI − 1.15, − 0.75, p < 0.001) than for social relationships (− 0.19, 95% CI − 0.36, − 0.02, p = 0.02), meaning and purpose (− 0.39, 95% CI − 0.55, − 0.23, p < 0.001), or character strengths (− 0.03, 95% CI − 0.16, 0.11, p = 0.68).
METHODS AND FINDINGS
In January and June 2020, participants were recruited and surveyed through online Qualtrics national consumer panels (Lucid). The January study employed a 15-minute questionnaire. Data were collected from January 2 through 13, 2020 resulting in 1010 completed responses (completed-surveys-toqualified-respondents rate, 90%) using a stratified national sample of adults 18 and older within all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Based on US Census data, quotas were designed to ensure that the final group of respondents reflected the distribution of adults nationwide and adequately represented the racial and ethnic diversity of the USA. Quotas limited responses by geographic region, gender, generation/age, and race/Hispanic-origin. No other screening criteria were applied. Post hoc weighting ensured the sample was representative of US adults in each quota area plus educational attainment and religious self-identification. Similar representative recruitment and online data collection was carried out in June 2020, from May 28 through June 10, 2020, resulting in 30
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