IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/agrebk/qt3cg413vq.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trends in depression risk before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Villas-Boas, Sofia B
  • White, Justin S
  • Kaplan, Scott
  • Hsia, Renee Y

Abstract

Using 11 years of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey data set for 2011 to 2021, we track the evolution of depression risk for U.S. states and territories before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use these data in conjunction with unemployment and COVID case data by state and by year to describe changes in the prevalence of self-reported diagnosis with a depressive disorder over time and especially after the onset of COVID in 2020 and 2021. We further investigate heterogeneous associations of depression risk by demographic characteristics. Regression analyses of these associations adjust for state-specific and period-specific factors using state and year-fixed effects. First, we find that depression risk had been increasing in the US in years preceding the pandemic. Second, we find no significant average changes in depression risk at the onset of COVID in 2020 relative to previous trends, but estimate a 3% increase in average depression risk in 2021. Importantly, we find meaningful variation in terms of changes in depression risk during the pandemic across demographic subgroups.

Suggested Citation

  • Villas-Boas, Sofia B & White, Justin S & Kaplan, Scott & Hsia, Renee Y, 2023. "Trends in depression risk before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt3cg413vq, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:agrebk:qt3cg413vq
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/3cg413vq.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zachary Swaziek & Abigail Wozniak, 2020. "Disparities Old and New in US Mental Health during the COVID‐19 Pandemic," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 709-732, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chaudhuri, Kausik & Howley, Peter, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 vaccination for mental well-being," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cdl:agrebk:qt3cg413vq. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dabrkus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.