Depression Symptoms, Perceived Stress, and Loneliness During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Diverse US Racial-Ethnic Groups

INTRODUCTION: Studies have reported increases in psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to estimate associations between race-ethnicity and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic among nationally representative samples of all major racial-ethnic groups in the United States. METHODS: We conducted a nationally representative cross-sectional survey between December 2020 and February 2021 of Asian, black/African American, Latino (English and Spanish speaking), American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, white, and multiracial adults (n=5500). Distress measures included: anxiety-depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-4 [PHQ-4]), stress (modified Perceived Stress Scale), and loneliness-isolation (frequency felt lonely and isolated). Multinomial logistic regression models estimated associations between race-ethnicity and psychological distress, adjusting for demographic and health characteristics. RESULTS: Overall, 23.7% reported moderate/severe anxiety-depression symptoms, 34.3% reported moderate/severe stress, and 21.3% reported feeling lonely-isolated fairly/very often. Compared with white adults and adjusting for covariates, the prevalence of moderate/severe anxiety-depression was significantly lower among Asian (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=0.44, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.34–0.58), black (aOR=0.49, 95% CI=0.38–0.63), English-speaking Latino (aOR=0.62, 95% CI=0.45–0.85), Spanish-speaking Latino (aOR=0.31, 95% CI=0.22–0.44), and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (aOR=0.66, 95% CI=0.49–0.90) adults. Similar trends were seen for moderate/severe stress and feeling lonely-isolated fairly/very often. Worse distress profiles of American Indian/Alaska Native and multiracial adults were attenuated after adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Minoritized groups tended to have less distress than white adults. Collective experiences of cumulative disadvantage could engender shared resiliency/normalization among these groups.