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Anxiety in the adult population from the onset to termination of social distancing protocols during the COVID-19: a 20-month longitudinal study
The social distancing protocols (SDPs) implemented as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic may seriously influence peoples’ mental health. We used a sample of 4361 Norwegian adults recruited online and stratified to be nationally representative to investigate the evolution of anxiety following each m...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9593999/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36284202 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22686-z |
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author | Hoffart, Asle Bauer, Daniel J. Johnson, Sverre Urnes Ebrahimi, Omid V.· |
author_facet | Hoffart, Asle Bauer, Daniel J. Johnson, Sverre Urnes Ebrahimi, Omid V.· |
author_sort | Hoffart, Asle |
collection | PubMed |
description | The social distancing protocols (SDPs) implemented as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic may seriously influence peoples’ mental health. We used a sample of 4361 Norwegian adults recruited online and stratified to be nationally representative to investigate the evolution of anxiety following each modification in national SDPs across a 20-month period from the onset of the pandemic to the reopening of society and discontinuation of SDPs. The mean anxiety level fluctuated throughout the observation period and these fluctuations were related to the stringency of the modified SDPs. Those with a high initial level almost in unison showed a substantial and lasting decrease of anxiety after the first lifting of SDPs. A sub-group of 9% had developed a persistent anxiety state during the first 3 months. Younger age, pre-existing psychiatric diagnosis, and use of unverified information platforms proved to predict marked higher anxiety in the long run. In conclusion, individuals with a high level of anxiety at the outbreak of the pandemic improved when the social distancing protocols were lifted. By contrast, a sizeable subgroup developed lasting clinical levels of anxiety during the first 3 months of the pandemic and is vulnerable to prolonged anxiety beyond the pandemic period. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9593999 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95939992022-10-25 Anxiety in the adult population from the onset to termination of social distancing protocols during the COVID-19: a 20-month longitudinal study Hoffart, Asle Bauer, Daniel J. Johnson, Sverre Urnes Ebrahimi, Omid V.· Sci Rep Article The social distancing protocols (SDPs) implemented as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic may seriously influence peoples’ mental health. We used a sample of 4361 Norwegian adults recruited online and stratified to be nationally representative to investigate the evolution of anxiety following each modification in national SDPs across a 20-month period from the onset of the pandemic to the reopening of society and discontinuation of SDPs. The mean anxiety level fluctuated throughout the observation period and these fluctuations were related to the stringency of the modified SDPs. Those with a high initial level almost in unison showed a substantial and lasting decrease of anxiety after the first lifting of SDPs. A sub-group of 9% had developed a persistent anxiety state during the first 3 months. Younger age, pre-existing psychiatric diagnosis, and use of unverified information platforms proved to predict marked higher anxiety in the long run. In conclusion, individuals with a high level of anxiety at the outbreak of the pandemic improved when the social distancing protocols were lifted. By contrast, a sizeable subgroup developed lasting clinical levels of anxiety during the first 3 months of the pandemic and is vulnerable to prolonged anxiety beyond the pandemic period. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-10-25 /pmc/articles/PMC9593999/ /pubmed/36284202 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22686-z Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Hoffart, Asle Bauer, Daniel J. Johnson, Sverre Urnes Ebrahimi, Omid V.· Anxiety in the adult population from the onset to termination of social distancing protocols during the COVID-19: a 20-month longitudinal study |
title | Anxiety in the adult population from the onset to termination of social distancing protocols during the COVID-19: a 20-month longitudinal study |
title_full | Anxiety in the adult population from the onset to termination of social distancing protocols during the COVID-19: a 20-month longitudinal study |
title_fullStr | Anxiety in the adult population from the onset to termination of social distancing protocols during the COVID-19: a 20-month longitudinal study |
title_full_unstemmed | Anxiety in the adult population from the onset to termination of social distancing protocols during the COVID-19: a 20-month longitudinal study |
title_short | Anxiety in the adult population from the onset to termination of social distancing protocols during the COVID-19: a 20-month longitudinal study |
title_sort | anxiety in the adult population from the onset to termination of social distancing protocols during the covid-19: a 20-month longitudinal study |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9593999/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36284202 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22686-z |
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