Rates of anxiety and depression symptoms declined in 2021, remained higher than pre-pandemic

Rates of anxiety and depression symptoms declined in 2021, remained higher than pre-pandemic

Collection:
Health Policy and Services Research
Author(s):
Geressu, Hannah, author
Planalp, Colin, author
Contributor(s):
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issuing body.
State Health Access Data Assistance Center (Minn.) issuing body.
Publication:
[Minneapolis, Minnesota] : State Health Access Data Assistance Center, June 2022
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Subject(s):
Anxiety -- epidemiology
COVID-19 -- epidemiology
Depression -- epidemiology
United States
Genre(s):
Technical Report
Abstract:
The U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey (HPS) collects data on household demographics, education, employment, food sufficiency, financial spending, housing security, and physical and mental health. Seven phases of the HPS have been completed as of writing of this brief, with the most recent phase scheduled to end on May 9, 2022. While the content of the HPS has varied since it was first fielded in April 2020, all versions of the HPS have included questions about anxiety and depression symptoms. This recognizes the ongoing stressors that the pandemic has imposed on individuals, such as new variants of COVID-19, job losses, financial hardships, renewed lockdowns, and school closures. To measure symptoms of anxiety and depression among respondents, the HPS asks questions from a four-item screening tool (see below) commonly used by health care providers. In an earlier study using HPS data, SHADAC found that rates of anxiety and depression symptoms were elevated and increased during the course of 2020--the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief revisits the issue of pandemic-era anxiety and depression symptoms for 2021, finding that rates declined during the second year of the crisis but remained elevated compared to pre-pandemic data. Additionally, wide disparities in anxiety and depression symptoms persisted across examinations of certain demographic categories, such as age, gender, and income, throughout 2021.
Copyright:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-ND license. (More information)
Extent:
1 online resource (1 PDF file (7 pages))
Illustrations:
Illustrations
NLM Unique ID:
9918471187606676 (See catalog record)
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918471187606676