While many of us are slowly easing out of lockdown, a new study has revealed some of the impact that the pandemic has had on our wellbeing.
According to a major UCL study, young women were most likely to suffer from lockdown-induced depression, anxiety and loneliness, according to the research.
For the study, researchers carried out a survey of 18,000 people in May, three months into lockdown. The report revealed that 19-year-olds were most likely to be experiencing mental health problems, just over one third of women and just under one quarter of men had symptoms of depression.
The report showed that 30-year-old women had the biggest increase in mental health problems compared with five years previously, with one in five 30-year-old women showing signs of depression, double that recorded in the oldest women in the survey.
The UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) analysed the impact of the pandemic on four generations – people born in 1958 (aged 62), 1970 (aged 50), 1989-90 (aged 30), and 2000-02 (aged 19).
The study participants were part of four different surveys which had interviewed them since childhood and the researchers compared the lockdown survey alongside a similar one done by the same participants five years ago.
The researchers found that women were more likely than men to suffer mental health problems during lockdown in each age category, the research showed.
Following teenagers were 30-year-old millennials – one in five women showed signs of depression compared with 14 per cent of the men. loneliness was also commonly experienced among 30 year-olds, affecting one third of women and a quarter of men.
UCL’s Dr Praveetha Patalay said: “Our findings clearly highlight high levels of difficulties being experienced by young people aged 19 and 30, especially young women. More needs to be done to support these age groups and limit the impact of the pandemic on their future health and wellbeing.”