Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Kingdom (UK) government introduced public health safety measures to mitigate the spikes in infection rates. This included stay-at-home orders that prevented people from leaving their homes for work or study, except for urgent medical care or buying essential items. This practice could have both short and long-term implications for health and wellbeing of people in the UK. Using longitudinal data of 10,630 UK adults, this study prospectively examined the association between home confinement status during the stringent lockdown in the UK (March 23-May 13, 2020) and 20 indicators of subjective well-being, social well-being, pro-social/altruistic behaviors, psychological distress, and health behaviors assessed approximately one month after the stringent lockdown ended. All analyses adjusted for socio-demographic characteristics and social isolation status in the beginning of the pandemic. Home confinement during the lockdown was associated with greater subsequent compliance with COVID-19 rules, more perceived major stressors, and a lower prevalence of physical activity. There was modest evidence of associations with lower life satisfaction, greater loneliness, greater depressive symptoms, greater anxiety symptoms, and more perceived minor stressors post-lockdown. However, there was little evidence that home confinement was associated with other indices of subsequent health and well-being. While our study shows that home confinement impacts some indices of subsequent health and wellbeing outcomes even after lockdown, the degree of the psychological adaptation to the difficult confinement behavior remains unclear and should be further studied.
Highlights
In response to rapid global transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), health authorities in many parts of the world instituted public health control measures to limit transmission of the virus (Counted et al, 2020; Govender et al, 2020)
Community mitigation strategies designed to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 varied across countries, with some enforcing stringent lockdowns at one or more points during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (Counted et al, 2021)
Whereas prior studies in this area have typically examined a single or narrow set of outcomes focused on a specific domain of human life at a time (Ammar et al, 2020; Fernandez-Rio et al, 2020), our study provided more holistic evidence for potential impacts of home confinement on subsequent health and wellbeing by examining a wide range of outcomes simultaneously
Summary
In response to rapid global transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), health authorities in many parts of the world instituted public health control measures to limit transmission of the virus (Counted et al, 2020; Govender et al, 2020). Community mitigation strategies designed to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 varied across countries, with some enforcing stringent lockdowns at one or more points during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (Counted et al, 2021). People were ordered to stay at home unless they needed to purchase essential items, fulfill employment obligations, or undertake essential activities (e.g., healthcare appointments) that could not be conducted remotely (Storr et al, 2021). These directives resulted in many people being emplaced within their homes for extended periods of time (Counted et al, 2021; Devine-Wright et al, 2020)
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