Elsevier

Public Health

Volume 212, November 2022, Pages 84-88
Public Health

Short Communication
Evidence for changes in population-level subjective well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic from 30 waves of representative panel data collected in Austria between March 2020 and March 2022

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2022.09.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

This study was conducted to describe how population-level subjective well-being (SWB) evolved throughout the pandemic.

Study design

Thirty waves of panel data representative of the Austrian population aged ≥14 years were collected between March 2020 and March 2022. Participants were quota sampled from a pre-existing online panel based on key demographics closely mirroring the Austrian resident population.

Methods

We present wave-specific means of SWB throughout 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic next to the evolution of the pandemic (cases and deaths) and stringency of lockdown measures in Austria as well as estimate their bivariate correlations.

Results

The analysed sample consisted of 3,293 participants contributing to a total of 46,168 observations. All components of SWB – negative affect, positive affect and life satisfaction – showed population-level fluctuation between March 2020 and March 2022. The magnitude of these changes was small. Population-level SWB correlated with the incidence rate of COVID-19 deaths (negative affect: r = 0.69, positive affect: r = −0.70, life satisfaction: r = −0.47), the Stringency Index (negative affect = 0.50, positive affect = −0.47, life satisfaction = −0.47) and less so with the incidence of COVID-19 cases (negative affect = 0.43, positive affect = −0.31, life satisfaction = −0.38).

Conclusions

Population-level SWB fluctuated in accordance with rises and falls in COVID-19 cases and deaths as well as with the stringency of lockdown measures. This connection suggests that incidence of COVID-19 cases and deaths, as well as public health measures to contain the pandemic affect population-level SWB and could thereby impact population health and productivity.

Keywords

Subjective well-being
COVID-19
Longitudinal study
Austria

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