研究發現，在大流行期間，年輕人的心理健康狀況惡化最多

: By 凱瑟琳·亞伯（Kathryn Abel）和馬蒂亞斯·皮爾斯（Matthias Pierce）

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研究發現，大流行期間年輕人的心理健康惡化最嚴重
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Public health responses to the pandemic have focused on preventing the spread of the virus, limiting the number of deaths and easing the burden on healthcare systems.對大流行的公共衛生應對措施集中在防止病毒傳播，限制死亡人數和減輕醫療保健系統負擔上。 But there's also potentially another, less visible epidemic we should be focusing on: mental illness.但是，還有潛在的另一流行病，我們應該關注的流行病是：精神疾病。

我們的最近的一項研究 found that people's mental health worsened following the onset of the pandemic.發現大流行之後人們的心理健康狀況惡化。 We discovered this by analysing data provided by 17,452 UK adults, who were surveyed in April 2020 as part of the我們通過分析XNUMX名英國成年人提供的數據發現了這一點，這些成年人於XNUMX年XNUMX月接受了調查，英國家庭縱向研究。 This is a large ongoing study of people who contribute data every year, some from as far back as 1992.這是一項正在進行的大型研究，涉及每年貢獻數據的人，有些人的歷史可以追溯到XNUMX年。

Not everyone, we discovered, was affected equally.我們發現，並不是每個人都受到同等的影響。 Young people, women, and those with small children saw their mental health worsen significantly more than other groups.年輕人，婦女和有小孩的人的心理健康狀況比其他群體明顯惡化。

我們如何衡量苦惱

這項調查使用12個問題來衡量心理健康，這些問題涵蓋了人們的睡眠，注意力集中和決策困難以及他們的情緒狀態，例如他們是否感到緊張或不知所措。

People's answers were then assigned a value between zero and four, with higher scores indicating worse mental health.然後為人們的答案分配一個介於36到XNUMX之間的值，分數越高表示心理健康越差。 These scores were added together to give each person a total of between zero and XNUMX, which offered an overall measure of their mental health.這些分數相加，得出每個人的總分在XNUMX到XNUMX之間，這提供了他們心理健康狀況的總體衡量指標。 We also applied a separate scoring system to people's answers to estimate whether they were showing clinically significant levels of psychological distress – that is, if their distress was high enough to potentially need medical assistance.我們還對人們的答案應用了單獨的評分系統，以評估他們是否表現出臨床上顯著的心理困擾水平-即，如果他們的痛苦程度高到可能需要醫療救助。

We found that many common and well-known mental health inequalities persisted in the middle of lockdown.我們發現，在鎖定期間，許多常見且眾所周知的心理健康不平等現象仍然存在。 For instance, women showed substantially worse mental health than men (with a mean score of 13.6 compared with 11.5), and one-third of women had clinically significant levels of distress compared with one-fifth of men.例如，女性的心理健康狀況明顯比男性差（平均得分為XNUMX，而男性為XNUMX），三分之一的女性在臨床上的困擾程度比男性高出五分之一。

Mental health also tended to get worse further down the income scale.在收入水平下降時，心理健康也趨於惡化。 The lowest fifth of earners had an average score of 13.9, with 32% showing clinically significant levels of distress.收入最低的五分之一人群的平均得分為12.0，其中26％的人群表現出臨床上的重大困擾。 This compared with an average score of XNUMX in the highest fifth of earners, of whom XNUMX% showed high distress levels.相比之下，收入最高的五分之一人口的平均得分為XNUMX，其中XNUMX％的人表現出較高的困擾水平。

重要的是要設法將流行病的影響與心理健康的普遍下降區分開來，尤其是在年輕人中。 simona pilolla 2 /快門

Yet while this told us where the mental health need was, it didn't tell us what the pandemic's effects had been.然而，儘管這告訴了我們心理健康的需求在哪裡，卻沒有告訴我們這種流行病的影響是什麼。 We got a better sense of this by comparing this year's scores with prior measurements – and indeed, mental health was, on average, worse this year.通過將今年的得分與先前的測量結果進行比較，我們對此有了更好的認識-實際上，平均而言，今年的心理健康狀況更糟。 Average scores have risen from 11.5 in the 2018/19 financial year to 12.6 in the recording made in April 2020. We also saw a significant overall increase in the proportion of people showing clinical levels of distress: 19% in 2018/19 versus 27% in April 2020.平均分數已從XNUMX/XNUMX財政年度的XNUMX上升到XNUMX年XNUMX月的記錄中的XNUMX。我們還看到，表現出臨床困擾水平的人員比例整體上有了顯著提高：XNUMX/XNUMX年度為XNUMX％，而XNUMX％ XNUMX年XNUMX月。

However, because the pandemic arose against a background of worsening mental health in the UK, we expected some deterioration.但是，由於大流行是在英國心理健康惡化的背景下發生的，因此我們預計情況會有所惡化。 We took account of this by looking at each individual's pre-pandemic answers, stretching back to 2014. These helped us predict what the scores were likely to have been in April 2020 had the pandemic not happened.我們通過查看每個人的大流行前答案（可追溯到XNUMX年）來考慮到這一點。這些信息有助於我們預測，如果大流行沒有發生，那麼XNUMX年XNUMX月的得分可能是多少。

總體而言，我們發現今年的得分比我們預期的要低0.5點，這表明這一大流行（特別是）對心理健康產生了影響。

並非所有人都受到同等的影響

This worsening of mental health differed considerably for different groups.精神健康的惡化在不同群體之間差異很大。 Compared to what we would have predicted to see, men's scores got only marginally worse (+0.06), while the change for women was far greater (+0.92).與我們預期的結果相比，男性的得分僅略微變差（+18），而女性的得分則大得多（+24）。 Young people, aged 2.7-XNUMX, were most affected, seeing a relative increase of XNUMX over what we would have expected if the pandemic had not happened.受此影響最大的是XNUMX至XNUMX歲的年輕人，如果沒有發生這種大流行，他們的預期相對增長了XNUMX。

We had also predicted that fear of the virus would be a driver of poorer mental health, and that this would disproportionately affect key workers or people with underlying health conditions.我們還曾預測過，對病毒的恐懼會導致心理健康狀況惡化，並且這將嚴重影響關鍵工人或具有潛在健康狀況的人。 But this was not the case.但是事實並非如此。

The factors driving the decline in some people's mental health are not yet clear.導致某些人心理健康下降的因素尚不清楚。 But some clues are revealed when we consider who was most affected.但是，當我們考慮誰受到最大影響時，就會發現一些線索。 The deterioration in women and those with young children points to the difficulty of managing the domestic load during lockdown.婦女和有年幼子女的婦女的惡化表明在鎖定期間難以管理家庭負擔。 Having young children is challenging at any point, and we know that reliable support from family members, paid childcare and friends lessen its impact.育有小孩在任何時候都是具有挑戰性的，我們知道，家人，有償托兒服務和朋友的可靠支持會減輕影響。 The government's social restrictions and lockdown abruptly cut off most of these supports.政府的社會限制和封鎖突然中斷了大部分支持。

The effects on young people are especially troubling to see.對年輕人的影響尤其令人困擾。 These have happened against a background, in the past decade, of significant在過去的十年中，這些事情發生的背景非常重大。年輕人的心理健康惡化以及年輕人的心理健康服務努力應付.

Some young people are vulnerable to social isolation and are affected badly by being withdrawn from school.一些年輕人容易受到社會孤立的影響，並因輟學而受到嚴重影響。 They may lose oversight of their wellbeing by teachers and other responsible adults, as well as access to regular meals and peer support from friends.他們可能會失去老師和其他負責任的成年人對其健康的監督，以及無法獲得定期進餐和朋友的同伴支持。

會產生長期影響嗎？

As lockdown measures ease, we may see improvements in people's mental health.隨著鎖定措施的放鬆，我們可能會看到人們的心理健康有所改善。 It remains to be seen whether there will be any long-term effects, such as pre-existing mental health inequalities becoming more entrenched.是否會產生任何長期影響，例如先前存在的心理健康不平等問題更加根深蒂固，還有待觀察。

大流行使人們不同的生活環境形成了鮮明的對比。進入外部空間, 家庭擁擠, 糧食不安全, 家庭暴力, 癮, 維持社交聯繫和經濟儲備 are all relevant to mental health.與心理健康有關。 It's likely these differences will become more important during the anticipated economic recession, and these may have different effects on mental health compared with the government lockdown.在預期的經濟衰退期間，這些差異可能會變得更加重要，並且與政府封鎖相比，這些差異可能對心理健康產生不同的影響。

What these changes will do to people's overall health, wellbeing and family is not known.這些變化將對人們的整體健康，福祉和家庭產生什麼影響尚不清楚。 But to mitigate and manage any additional mental health needs requires them to be closely monitored.但是，要減輕和管理任何其他精神健康需求，就需要對其進行密切監控。 People also need to receive high-quality information about mental health in public health messaging and be provided with adequately resourced services.人們還需要在公共衛生消息中接收有關心理健康的高質量信息，並獲得足夠資源的服務。 We would do well to remember that our mental health is as important as our physical health, and this should not be lost in our future planning.我們會很好地記住，我們的心理健康與我們的身體健康同樣重要，這在我們的未來計劃中不應失去。