The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on symptoms of depression and anxiety among older adults: the MYHAT study.

IF 2.8 3区医学 Q3 GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY

Aging & Mental Health Pub Date : 2025-05-15 DOI:10.1080/13607863.2025.2505565

Tiffany F Hughes, Ruopu Song, Yueting Wang, Erin Jacobsen, Chung-Chou H Chang, Mary Ganguli

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives: To identify subgroups of older adults whose mental health was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Interrupted time series (ITS) analyses were used to measure the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on symptoms of depression (mCES-D) and anxiety (GAD-7) among participants aged 65 years and older (n = 708) from a prospective, longitudinal cohort study.

Results: Symptoms of depression, but not anxiety, significantly increased at the start of the pandemic, while long-term trends in depression and anxiety during the pandemic were similar to pre-pandemic trends. Participants aged 75 years and older exhibited a more rapid decline in depression symptoms over time than expected after an initial increase. Women experienced a greater immediate increase in anxiety that decreased over time, while men's anxiety increased over time. Cognitively normal participants experienced a greater than expected immediate increase in symptoms of depression that decreased over time, while symptoms were unchanged by the pandemic for those with cognitive impairment.

Conclusion: Despite an initial increase in depression symptoms, the pandemic did not result in elevated symptoms of depression and anxiety long-term. The impact of the pandemic on mental health varied by age, gender, and cognitive status, suggesting some groups may have been more vulnerable than others.

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COVID-19大流行对老年人抑郁和焦虑症状的影响：MYHAT研究

目的：确定心理健康受COVID-19大流行影响的老年人亚组。方法：采用中断时间序列（ITS）分析来测量COVID-19大流行对65岁及以上参与者（n = 708）抑郁症状（mCES-D）和焦虑症状（GAD-7）的长期影响。结果：抑郁症状（而非焦虑症状）在大流行开始时显著增加，而大流行期间抑郁和焦虑的长期趋势与大流行前的趋势相似。75岁及以上的参与者在抑郁症状最初增加后，随着时间的推移表现出比预期更快的下降。随着时间的推移，女性的焦虑会立即增加，而男性的焦虑会随着时间的推移而增加。认知正常的参与者经历了比预期更大的抑郁症状立即增加，随着时间的推移而减少，而认知障碍患者的症状没有受到大流行的影响。结论：尽管最初抑郁症状有所增加，但大流行并未导致抑郁和焦虑症状的长期升高。大流行对心理健康的影响因年龄、性别和认知状况而异，这表明一些群体可能比其他群体更脆弱。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Aging & Mental Health 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

7.00

自引率

2.90%

发文量

176

审稿时长

4-8 weeks

期刊介绍： Aging & Mental Health provides a leading international forum for the rapidly expanding field which investigates the relationship between the aging process and mental health. The journal addresses the mental changes associated with normal and abnormal or pathological aging, as well as the psychological and psychiatric problems of the aging population. The journal also has a strong commitment to interdisciplinary and innovative approaches that explore new topics and methods. Aging & Mental Health covers the biological, psychological and social aspects of aging as they relate to mental health. In particular it encourages an integrated approach for examining various biopsychosocial processes and etiological factors associated with psychological changes in the elderly. It also emphasizes the various strategies, therapies and services which may be directed at improving the mental health of the elderly and their families. In this way the journal promotes a strong alliance among the theoretical, experimental and applied sciences across a range of issues affecting mental health and aging. The emphasis of the journal is on rigorous quantitative, and qualitative, research and, high quality innovative studies on emerging topics.