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Age and Emotional Distress during COVID-19: Findings from Two Waves of the Norwegian Citizen Panel
- Source :
- 18:9568, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH), International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Volume 18, Issue 18, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 9568, p 9568 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Older adults face the highest risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. We investigated a one-year change in emotions and factors associated with emotional distress immediately after the onset of the pandemic, with emphasis on older age. Methods: The online Norwegian Citizen Panel includes participants drawn randomly from the Norwegian Population Registry. Emotional distress was defined as the sum score of negative (anxious, worried, sad or low, irritated, and lonely) minus positive emotions (engaged, calm and relaxed, happy). Results: Respondents to both surveys (n = 967) reported a one-year increase in emotional distress, mainly driven by elevated anxiety and worrying, but we found no difference in change by age. Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression comparing older age, economy-, and health-related factors showed that persons in their 60s (ß −1.87 (95%CI: −3.71, −0.04)) and 70s/80s (ß: −2.58 (−5.00, −0–17)) had decreased risk of emotional distress relative to persons under 60 years. Female gender (2.81 (1.34, 4.28)), expecting much lower income (5.09 (2.00, 8.17)), uncertainty whether infected with SARS-Cov2 (2.92 (1.21, 4.63)), and high self-rated risk of infection (1.77 (1.01, 2.53)) were associated with high levels of emotional distress. Conclusions: Knowledge of national determinants of distress is crucial to tailor accurate public health interventions in future outbreaks. publishedVersion
- Subjects :
- Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Emotions
Population
Norwegian
Psychological Distress
Article
emotional distress
Emotional distress
gender
medicine
Humans
education
Lower income
older adults
Aged
education.field_of_study
outbreak
SARS-CoV-2
Risk of infection
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
COVID-19
health
language.human_language
Distress
income
age
language
RNA, Viral
Medicine
Anxiety
Female
medicine.symptom
Psychology
Stress, Psychological
Clinical psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 16604601
- Volume :
- 18
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f3f65d361b2e257d462a69b55dae4f16
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18189568