Around 7.2 million people aged 16 and over have reported experiencing a mental health problem “much more than usual”, according to the authors of the study.
The mental health of women and young people have been particularly affected during the lockdown.
The authors of the report said that the scale of the deterioration in mental health is of a magnitude “unlike anything seen in recent years”.
Using a measure of overall mental health, women aged 16-24 had 16 percent worse than average mental health scores before the crisis; this differential rose to 27 percent in April 2020, despite the worsening trend in the overall average score.
The results are based on survey of 12,000 people who were questioned about their mental health as part of a longitudinal study taking place over several years. They were asked the same questions about their mental health in April.
The report, entitled “The mental health effects of the first two months of lockdown and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.K.”, states that “inequalities in mental health have been increased by the pandemic.”
Those who were already struggling with mental health difficulties before the crisis were found to have had the largest deterioration in their mental health.
The report states: “Our results also show clearly that the COVID pandemic has widened mental health inequalities, with the groups that had the poorest mental health pre-crisis also having had the largest deterioration.”
Nearly a quarter of those surveyed said that they had experienced at least one mental health problem much more than normal, up from just 10 percent in the most recent pre-crisis data.
The report also says that the results show key workers had less of a deterioration in their mental health, and those who were laid off, had young children, or who had COVID-19 symptoms on the day of the interview had a greater deterioration.
Xiaowei Xu, a Senior Research Economist at IFS and an author of the paper, said: “The effects of COVID-19 and the associated lockdown on mental health have been very big indeed.
“Young people and women, already at more risk of mental health problems, have experienced particularly big impacts on their mental health. These impacts need to be weighed alongside economic and other health effects of policies as we move out of lockdown.
“It will be important to monitor changes in mental health and to make sure that appropriate support is given to those who are struggling.”
The study began in 2009 and included 36,000 individuals in the latest wave (wave 9). Interview waves span three overlapping years, with the vast majority of interviews taking place in the first two years, so that wave 1 runs from 2009 to 2011, for example.
Adults aged 16 or older in each household are re-interviewed roughly one year apart, including individuals who move addresses or leave their original households to form new households. The sample is weighted to be nationally representative.
In April 2020, participants of the UKHLS were asked to complete a short online survey on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and this survey included the GHQ-12 instrument as well as information on demographics economic conditions in February 2020 (just before the start of the pandemic) and in April 2020. The The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) is a measure of current mental health.
The scale asks whether the respondent has experienced a particular symptom or behavior recently. Each item is rated on a four-point scale
The authors state that after dropping cases without wave 9 information which they need for their pre-crisis analysis and other cases with zero weight and dropping cases with missing responses to the GHQ-12 scale, they we are left with a resulting analysis sample of 11,980 individuals.
