Short communication
Prevalence of current mental disorders before and during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of repeated nationwide cross-sectional surveys

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.05.032Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We compared the prevalence of current mental disorders in three cross-sectional surveys.

  • Czechs were screened at the baseline and during the 1st and the 2nd wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Mental health sharply declined during the first and did not show any improvement during the second COVID-19 related lockdown.

  • The distribution of mental disorders across non-clinical population sub-groups is uneven.

  • Economically worse-off subgroups display particularly high rates of mental disorders.

Abstract

Objectives

To assess the prevalence of mental disorders during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in comparison with both, baseline and the first wave of the pandemic, and to identify disproportionally affected non-clinical subgroups.

Material and methods

We used data from three nationally representative cross-sectional studies and compared the prevalence of current mood and anxiety disorders, and alcohol-use disorders at baseline (November 2017, n = 3306), immediately after the first peak (May 2020, n = 3021), and during the second peak (November 2020, n = 3000) of COVID-19 in Czechia. We used the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) as a screening instrument, and calculated weighted prevalence (%) with 95% weighted confidence intervals (95% CIs). Additionally, we examined the prevalence of these disorders across different non-clinical population sub-groups during the second wave of the pandemic.

Results

The proportion of individuals experiencing at least one mental disorder was highest during the second wave of the pandemic (32.94%, 95% CI = 31.14%; 34.77%), when compared to both the baseline in November 2017 (20.02%, 95% CI = 18.64%; 21.39%), and the first wave in May 2020 (29.63%, 95% CI = 27.9%; 31.37%). Younger adults, students, those having lost a job or on forced leave, and those with only elementary education displayed disproportionally high prevalence of mental disorders.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that population mental health has not returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. It seems that mental health of some population subgroups, such as young adults or those worse off economically, might have been affected disproportionately by the COVID-19 situation, and future studies identifying high-risk groups are warranted.

Keywords

Mental disorders
Prevalence
COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2
Depression
Anxiety

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