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Social isolation, mental health, and use of digital interventions in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationally representative survey

BACKGROUND: Public health measures to curb SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates may have negative psychosocial consequences in youth. Digital interventions may help to mitigate these effects. We investigated the associations between social isolation, COVID-19-related cognitive preoccupation, worries, and a...

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Autores principales: Rauschenberg, Christian, Schick, Anita, Goetzl, Christian, Roehr, Susanne, Riedel-Heller, Steffi G., Koppe, Georgia, Durstewitz, Daniel, Krumm, Silvia, Reininghaus, Ulrich
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7985650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33686930
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.17
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author Rauschenberg, Christian
Schick, Anita
Goetzl, Christian
Roehr, Susanne
Riedel-Heller, Steffi G.
Koppe, Georgia
Durstewitz, Daniel
Krumm, Silvia
Reininghaus, Ulrich
author_facet Rauschenberg, Christian
Schick, Anita
Goetzl, Christian
Roehr, Susanne
Riedel-Heller, Steffi G.
Koppe, Georgia
Durstewitz, Daniel
Krumm, Silvia
Reininghaus, Ulrich
author_sort Rauschenberg, Christian
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Public health measures to curb SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates may have negative psychosocial consequences in youth. Digital interventions may help to mitigate these effects. We investigated the associations between social isolation, COVID-19-related cognitive preoccupation, worries, and anxiety, objective social risk indicators, and psychological distress, as well as use of, and attitude toward, mobile health (mHealth) interventions in youth. METHODS: Data were collected as part of the “Mental Health And Innovation During COVID-19 Survey”—a cross-sectional panel study including a representative sample of individuals aged 16–25 years (N = 666; M(age) = 21.3; assessment period: May 5, 2020 to May 16, 2020). RESULTS: Overall, 38% of youth met criteria for moderate or severe psychological distress. Social isolation worries and anxiety, and objective risk indicators were associated with psychological distress, with evidence of dose–response relationships for some of these associations. For instance, psychological distress was progressively more likely to occur as levels of social isolation increased (reporting “never” as reference group: “occasionally”: adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 9.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.3–19.1, p < 0.001; “often”: aOR 22.2, CI 9.8–50.2, p < 0.001; “very often”: aOR 42.3, CI 14.1–126.8, p < 0.001). There was evidence that psychological distress, worries, and anxiety were associated with a positive attitude toward using mHealth interventions, whereas psychological distress, worries, and anxiety were associated with actual use. CONCLUSIONS: Public health measures during pandemics may be associated with poor mental health outcomes in youth. Evidence-based digital interventions may help mitigate the negative psychosocial impact without risk of viral infection given there is an objective need and subjective demand.
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spelling pubmed-79856502021-03-25 Social isolation, mental health, and use of digital interventions in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationally representative survey Rauschenberg, Christian Schick, Anita Goetzl, Christian Roehr, Susanne Riedel-Heller, Steffi G. Koppe, Georgia Durstewitz, Daniel Krumm, Silvia Reininghaus, Ulrich Eur Psychiatry Research Article BACKGROUND: Public health measures to curb SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates may have negative psychosocial consequences in youth. Digital interventions may help to mitigate these effects. We investigated the associations between social isolation, COVID-19-related cognitive preoccupation, worries, and anxiety, objective social risk indicators, and psychological distress, as well as use of, and attitude toward, mobile health (mHealth) interventions in youth. METHODS: Data were collected as part of the “Mental Health And Innovation During COVID-19 Survey”—a cross-sectional panel study including a representative sample of individuals aged 16–25 years (N = 666; M(age) = 21.3; assessment period: May 5, 2020 to May 16, 2020). RESULTS: Overall, 38% of youth met criteria for moderate or severe psychological distress. Social isolation worries and anxiety, and objective risk indicators were associated with psychological distress, with evidence of dose–response relationships for some of these associations. For instance, psychological distress was progressively more likely to occur as levels of social isolation increased (reporting “never” as reference group: “occasionally”: adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 9.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.3–19.1, p < 0.001; “often”: aOR 22.2, CI 9.8–50.2, p < 0.001; “very often”: aOR 42.3, CI 14.1–126.8, p < 0.001). There was evidence that psychological distress, worries, and anxiety were associated with a positive attitude toward using mHealth interventions, whereas psychological distress, worries, and anxiety were associated with actual use. CONCLUSIONS: Public health measures during pandemics may be associated with poor mental health outcomes in youth. Evidence-based digital interventions may help mitigate the negative psychosocial impact without risk of viral infection given there is an objective need and subjective demand. Cambridge University Press 2021-03-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7985650/ /pubmed/33686930 http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.17 Text en © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association 2021 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rauschenberg, Christian
Schick, Anita
Goetzl, Christian
Roehr, Susanne
Riedel-Heller, Steffi G.
Koppe, Georgia
Durstewitz, Daniel
Krumm, Silvia
Reininghaus, Ulrich
Social isolation, mental health, and use of digital interventions in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationally representative survey
title Social isolation, mental health, and use of digital interventions in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationally representative survey
title_full Social isolation, mental health, and use of digital interventions in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationally representative survey
title_fullStr Social isolation, mental health, and use of digital interventions in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationally representative survey
title_full_unstemmed Social isolation, mental health, and use of digital interventions in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationally representative survey
title_short Social isolation, mental health, and use of digital interventions in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic: A nationally representative survey
title_sort social isolation, mental health, and use of digital interventions in youth during the covid-19 pandemic: a nationally representative survey
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7985650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33686930
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2021.17
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