Abstract
The COVID-19 lockdown has drastically limited social interactions and brought about a climate of fear and uncertainty. These circumstances not only increased affective symptoms and social isolation among community dwelling older adults but also alter the dynamics between them. Using network analyses, we study the changes in these dynamics before and during the lockdown. Community-dwelling older adults (N = 419) completed questionnaires assessing depression, anxiety, and social isolation, before the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of a cohort study, and during the lockdown period. The total scores of these questionnaires were compared across time. For the network analyses, partial correlation networks were constructed using items in the questionnaires as nodes, separately at both timepoints. Changes in edges, as well as nodal and bridge centrality were examined across time. Depression and anxiety symptoms, and social isolation had significantly increased during the lockdown. Significant changes were observed across time on several edges. Greater connectivity between the affective and social isolation nodes at lockdown was observed. Depression symptoms have become more tightly coupled across individuals, and so were the anxiety symptoms. Depression symptoms have also become slightly decoupled from those of anxiety. These changing network dynamics reflect the greater influence of social isolation on affective symptoms across individuals and an increased vulnerability to affective disorders. These findings provide novel perspectives and translational implications on the changing mental health context amidst a COVID-19 pandemic situation.
Highlights
The COVID-19 lockdown has drastically limited social interactions and brought about a climate of fear and uncertainty
The correlation stability (CS) coefficients for the edges at pre-COVID-19 and lockdown were 0.39 and 0.44, respectively; the CS coefficients for the centrality strength were 0.44 and 0.44 at both time points. These results suggest that the orders of edge and centrality strengths are interpretable with some c are[26]
The current study investigated how a COVID-19 lockdown has altered the dynamics between depression, anxiety, and social isolation
Summary
The COVID-19 lockdown has drastically limited social interactions and brought about a climate of fear and uncertainty. Depression symptoms have become slightly decoupled from those of anxiety These changing network dynamics reflect the greater influence of social isolation on affective symptoms across individuals and an increased vulnerability to affective disorders. People are strongly advised, or in some cases legally obligated to stay at home These measures increased social isolation within the community. As longitudinal research has shown, perceived and objective social isolation among older adults are significant risk factors for developing depression and anxiety symptoms[2] Despite their increased social isolation related concerns, research have generally indicated that older adults fared significantly better than young adults in in terms of experiencing less COVID-19-related anxiety, and less negative affect and mood states[3,4,5]. This may be due to the fact that older adults reported higher perceived coping efficacy and were generally more confident of the COVID-19 s ituation[5]
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