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Lockdown strictness and mental health effects among older populations in Europe

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  • García-Prado, Ariadna
  • González, Paula
  • Rebollo-Sanz, Yolanda F.

Abstract

This paper investigates whether lockdown policies aggravated mental health problems of older populations (50 and over) in Europe during the first COVID-19 wave. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE COVID-19 questionnaire) and from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker for 17 countries, we estimate the causal effect of lockdown policies on mental health by combining cross-country variability in the strictness of the policies with cross-individual variability in face-to-face contacts prior to the pandemic. We find that lockdown policies worsened insomnia, anxiety, and depression by 5, 7.2 and 5.1 percentage points, respectively. This effect was stronger for women and those aged between 50 and 65. Interestingly, lockdown policies notably damaged the mental health of healthy populations. We close with a discussion of lockdown policies targeted at individuals above 65 and/or with pre-existing conditions.

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  • García-Prado, Ariadna & González, Paula & Rebollo-Sanz, Yolanda F., 2022. "Lockdown strictness and mental health effects among older populations in Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:45:y:2022:i:c:s1570677x22000120
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101116
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    2. Di Novi, Cinzia & Paruolo, Paolo & Verzillo, Stefano, 2023. "Does labour protection influence mental-health responses to employment shocks? Evidence on older workers in Europe," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    3. Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M Jones, 2021. "The first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic and its impact on socioeconomic inequality in psychological distress in the UK," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 1668-1683, July.
    4. Bello, Piera & Di Novi, Cinzia & Martini, Gianmaria & Sturaro, Caterina, 2024. "Alleviating loneliness during COVID-19: The impact of neighbor cohesion and social connections in England," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    5. Inés Berniell & Anne Laferrère & Pedro Mira & Elizaveta Pronkina, 2023. "Robinson Crusoe: less or more depressed? With whom and where to live in a pandemic if you are above 50," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 435-459, June.
    6. Danilo Cavapozzi, 2022. "The causal impact of remote working on depression during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2022 10, Stata Users Group.
    7. Lili Li & Araz Taeihagh & Si Ying Tan, 2023. "A scoping review of the impacts of COVID-19 physical distancing measures on vulnerable population groups," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; Mental health; Lockdown; Confinement; Containment index; Mobility restrictions; Senior and older Europeans; Causality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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