Effects of Changes in Discretionary Trips and Online Activities on Social and Mental Health during Two Different Phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

Abstract

An aggregate analysis shows that undertaking fewer work and leisure trips during the pandemic had negative effects on mental health, but reducing trips to grocery shops, pharmacies and parks had the opposite effect, but there is a lack of studies on the effects of behaviour change on mental health using a disaggregate analysis. Beside mental health, a lockdown is assumed to cause social isolation, which is hypothesised to also deteriorate social health due to reducing one’s time spent socialising. This study fills these research gaps and examines the effects of behaviour change on social and mental health during the pandemic. Travel restraints have been relaxed and tightened several times, but no study has investigated the behaviour changes and discrepancies in social and mental health between Malaysia’s strict and relaxed periods. Around 438 respondents reported their behaviour changes during two different travel restraint periods and before the pandemic. This study confirms that the relaxation period caused a significant increase in the number of discretionary trips in Malaysia; however, the increase in discretionary trips did not have any significant effects in improving mental and social health. A disaggregate analysis showed that grocery shopping and socialising trips had negative effects on mental health, as opposed to previous studies using an aggregate analysis. Socialising trips, however, helped to improve the social health conditions.