One in Three Luxembourg Residents Report their Mental Health Declined during the COVID-19 Crisis
- PDF / 294,590 Bytes
- 7 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 40 Downloads / 168 Views
One in Three Luxembourg Residents Report their Mental Health Declined during the COVID-19 Crisis Kelsey J. O’Connor 1
& Chiara
Peroni 1
Received: 17 July 2020 / Accepted: 22 October 2020/ # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract COVID-19 has had unprecedented effects on people around the world, causing even the best performing communities to live in uncertainty for the future. How are people coping? We – the general public, the academic community, and policy makers – need answers. To that end we analyse novel data for Luxembourg, finding one third of residents report their mental health declined during lockdown and young adults (ages 18–44) fared the worst. The most important contributors observed are physical health, income, and employment characteristics, such as working from home, which people seemed to enjoy. To limit collateral damage on mental health, various tools are available, which we briefly discuss. Keywords COVID-19 . Mental health . Public policy . Social distancing . Lockdown
The COVID-19 pandemic and fight against it has had significant collateral effects on mental health. Based on recently collected data by STATEC,1 the Luxembourg National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies – one in three Luxembourg residents reported a decline in their mental health (santé morale). Such psychological effects were often ignored during the initial stages of the pandemic. Yet, as countries gain some control over the contagion, they have expanded their focus in hopes of addressing these issues. To that end, we examine plausible causes of mental distress during the period of lockdown in Luxembourg. Authorities and the public are beginning to address the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. The consequences derive from both the direct impacts of the virus and the lockdown measures, which impose strict social distancing and limits 1 COVID-19 Social and Economic Impact Survey, a nationally representative survey conducted by STATEC in collaboration with TNS Ilres.
* Kelsey J. O’Connor [email protected]
1
STATEC Research (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies), Luxembourg, Luxembourg
International Journal of Community Well-Being
to time spent outdoors. This attention is necessary. Mental health is one of the most important components of well-being (Flèche and Layard 2017), and well-being is not only intrinsically important but positively affects traditional economic outcomes (eg., DiMaria et al. 2019; O’Connor 2020). Indeed the World Health Organization changed their recommendation from social distancing to physical distancing at the end of March 2020, in order to mitigate the impacts of lockdown measures on mental health.2 Social isolation is expected to affect the whole population and its effects on youth and the elderly in particular have caught public attention.3 What is more, deteriorating mental health could lead to a vicious cycle – fear, despair, depression, and isolation which lead to poor physical health, economic and social outcomes, which in
Data Loading...
