A new study from the Australian National University (ANU) has found that financial stress during lockdown associated with the coronavirus has imposed a greater cost on people’s mental health than exposure to COVID-19.
The University ‘s researchers found that rates of people with clinical level anxiety and depression were double the normal population levels during Australia’s initial lockdown in March, and the spike was related to pandemic-induced financial and social problems.
The ANU said the researchers also warned Australia could see another spike in anxiety and depression with an impending change to JobSeeker rates.
Lead researcher at ANU, Amy Dawel said her team had taken a snapshot of Australia’s mental health and it was worrying.
“Financial, social and work disruptions caused by the initial lockdown phase of the pandemic have significantly impaired our nation’s mental health – doubling rates of anxiety and depression,” Dr Dawel said.
“These findings provide clear evidence that minimising social and financial disruption during the pandemic should be a central goal of public health policy,” she said.
“We know from this study the changes to JobKeeper and JobSeeker could have a big impact on the nation’s mental health.”
Dr Dawel said the study surveyed a nationally representative sample of almost 1,300 Australian adults between 28 and 31 March, when international borders had just closed and there were fresh restrictions on restaurants, bars and social gatherings.
“Looking at people’s mental health during the acute phase is important because fear about potential exposure to infection, loss of employment, and financial strain are all likely to increase psychological distress in the broader population,” she said.
“Our results suggest that, at a population level, disruption to social and work functioning due to COVID-19 were more strongly associated with decrements in mental health than amount of disease contact.”
Dr Dawel said the study found that it was financial distress caused by job loss, rather than job loss itself, that impacted people’s mental health.
The ANU study can be accessed on the Frontiers in Psychiatry website at this PS News link.
