Abstract
Objectives: While previous research has mainly focused on the impact of the first acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, little empirical knowledge exists about depression, anxiety, and somatic symptom levels and possible predictors of symptom levels in the pandemic’s recovery phase. The present study aimed to analyze the mental burden of a convenience ample of the general German population during the first recovery phase of the pandemic and to identify significant predictors of symptom levels.Methods: Standardized measures of anxiety (GAD-2), depression (PHQ-2), somatic symptoms (PHQ-15), and health anxiety, as well as measures of COVID-19 fears and possible vulnerability factors, were administered through a national, cross-sectional online survey (n = 2160, mean age 42.7 years, 75% female), asking participants for their current symptom levels and their symptom levels prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.Results: Our findings show significantly elevated levels of depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and health anxiety in the recovery period compared to before the pandemic. The current prevalence rates based on self-reporting were 26.7% for depression, 24.5% for anxiety, and 29% for somatization. The strongest predictors of these symptom reports included domain-specific pre-existing symptom levels, neuroticism, biological COVID-19 risk factors, avoidance of illness information, and younger age. The most important predictors of COVID-19 fears were subjective COVID-19 risk perception, followed by pre-existing health anxiety, the number of biological COVID-19 risk factors, older age, neuroticism, avoidance of illness information and female gender.Discussion: These findings indicate the need for specific psychological programs to help individuals with enhanced psychological and biological vulnerability to cope better with the mental distress experienced during all phases of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Highlights
The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), identified in late 2019 in China (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020b), has rapidly spread worldwide from person to person mainly by respiratory droplets and contact transmission
The mean infection rate with the Corona virus was 1.3% in our sample compared to 0.24% in the German population. 1.2% reported that a person close to them is currently infected with the coronavirus, and 12.2% reported having a close person who was infected in the past
At least 30% of the respondents estimated that they were at least 50% likely to become infected with the coronavirus in the future, 31.3% expected with a probability of at least 50% to become a carrier themselves, and 41.4% reported a mediumto-severe fear of becoming a carrier. 19.5% stated that they have been moderately to severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in their daily lives
Summary
The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), identified in late 2019 in China (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020b), has rapidly spread worldwide from person to person mainly by respiratory droplets and contact transmission. In response to the rapidly rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Europe during February and March 2020, many countries implemented large-scale non-pharmaceutical interventions to slow the spread of the coronavirus (including closing preschools, schools, universities, stores, bars, restaurants, hotels, and cultural institutions; stay-at-home policies; border closures; and measures to isolate infected individuals and their contacts). In Germany, the first “lockdown” of public social life started on March 22 and was lifted on April 20 This “lockdown” was effective in reducing virus transmission (Flaxman et al, 2020) and protected the public health system, intensive care units, from a possible breakdown
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