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A quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK young adults

PURPOSE: Mental health inequalities across social identities/positions during the COVID-19 pandemic have been mostly reported independently from each other or in a limited way (e.g., at the intersection between age and sex or gender). We aim to provide an inclusive socio-demographic mapping of diffe...

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Autores principales: Moreno-Agostino, Darío, Woodhead, Charlotte, Ploubidis, George B., Das-Munshi, Jayati
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9872068/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36692519
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02424-0
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author Moreno-Agostino, Darío
Woodhead, Charlotte
Ploubidis, George B.
Das-Munshi, Jayati
author_facet Moreno-Agostino, Darío
Woodhead, Charlotte
Ploubidis, George B.
Das-Munshi, Jayati
author_sort Moreno-Agostino, Darío
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: Mental health inequalities across social identities/positions during the COVID-19 pandemic have been mostly reported independently from each other or in a limited way (e.g., at the intersection between age and sex or gender). We aim to provide an inclusive socio-demographic mapping of different mental health measures in the population using quantitative methods that are consistent with an intersectional perspective. METHODS: Data included 8,588 participants from two British cohorts (born in 1990 and 2000–2002, respectively), collected in February/March 2021 (during the third UK nationwide lockdown). Measures of anxiety and depressive symptomatology, loneliness, and life satisfaction were analysed using Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA) models. RESULTS: We found evidence of large mental health inequalities across intersectional strata. Large proportions of those inequalities were accounted for by the additive effects of the variables used to define the intersections, with some of the largest gaps associated with sexual orientation (with sexual minority groups showing substantially worse outcomes). Additional inequalities were found by cohort/generation, birth sex, racial/ethnic groups, and socioeconomic position. Intersectional effects were observed mostly in intersections defined by combinations of privileged and marginalised social identities/positions (e.g., lower-than-expected life satisfaction in South Asian men in their thirties from a sexual minority and a disadvantaged childhood social class). CONCLUSION: We found substantial inequalities largely cutting across intersectional strata defined by multiple co-constituting social identities/positions. The large gaps found by sexual orientation extend the existing evidence that sexual minority groups were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Study implications and limitations are discussed. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00127-023-02424-0.
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spelling pubmed-98720682023-01-25 A quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK young adults Moreno-Agostino, Darío Woodhead, Charlotte Ploubidis, George B. Das-Munshi, Jayati Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol Research PURPOSE: Mental health inequalities across social identities/positions during the COVID-19 pandemic have been mostly reported independently from each other or in a limited way (e.g., at the intersection between age and sex or gender). We aim to provide an inclusive socio-demographic mapping of different mental health measures in the population using quantitative methods that are consistent with an intersectional perspective. METHODS: Data included 8,588 participants from two British cohorts (born in 1990 and 2000–2002, respectively), collected in February/March 2021 (during the third UK nationwide lockdown). Measures of anxiety and depressive symptomatology, loneliness, and life satisfaction were analysed using Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA) models. RESULTS: We found evidence of large mental health inequalities across intersectional strata. Large proportions of those inequalities were accounted for by the additive effects of the variables used to define the intersections, with some of the largest gaps associated with sexual orientation (with sexual minority groups showing substantially worse outcomes). Additional inequalities were found by cohort/generation, birth sex, racial/ethnic groups, and socioeconomic position. Intersectional effects were observed mostly in intersections defined by combinations of privileged and marginalised social identities/positions (e.g., lower-than-expected life satisfaction in South Asian men in their thirties from a sexual minority and a disadvantaged childhood social class). CONCLUSION: We found substantial inequalities largely cutting across intersectional strata defined by multiple co-constituting social identities/positions. The large gaps found by sexual orientation extend the existing evidence that sexual minority groups were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Study implications and limitations are discussed. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00127-023-02424-0. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2023-01-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9872068/ /pubmed/36692519 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02424-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis 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 Research
Moreno-Agostino, Darío
Woodhead, Charlotte
Ploubidis, George B.
Das-Munshi, Jayati
A quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK young adults
title A quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK young adults
title_full A quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK young adults
title_fullStr A quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK young adults
title_full_unstemmed A quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK young adults
title_short A quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK young adults
title_sort quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the covid-19 pandemic in uk young adults
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9872068/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36692519
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00127-023-02424-0
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