The Well-Being of the German Adult Population Measured with the WHO-5 over Different Phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis within the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring Study (COSMO)

Fang-Yi Tsai, Hannah Schillok, Michaela Coenen, Christina Merkel, Caroline Jung-Sievers and on behalf of the COSMO Study Group
Additional contact information
Fang-Yi Tsai: Chair of Public Health and Health Services Research, Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology—IBE, Elisabeth-Winterhalter-Weg 6, 81377 Munich, Germany
Hannah Schillok: Chair of Public Health and Health Services Research, Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology—IBE, Elisabeth-Winterhalter-Weg 6, 81377 Munich, Germany
Michaela Coenen: Chair of Public Health and Health Services Research, Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology—IBE, Elisabeth-Winterhalter-Weg 6, 81377 Munich, Germany
Christina Merkel: Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA), Maar-Weg 149-161, 50825 Cologne, Germany
Caroline Jung-Sievers: Chair of Public Health and Health Services Research, Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology—IBE, Elisabeth-Winterhalter-Weg 6, 81377 Munich, Germany
on behalf of the COSMO Study Group: Complete list of study group members appears in the Acknowledgments.

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-27

Abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate factors associated with the subjective well-being (SWB) and suspected depression measured with WHO-5 among German adults during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey data were analyzed from the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) study, which collected data from 972, 1013, and 973 participants in time point 1 (19–20 May 2020), time point 2 (15–16 September 2020), and time point 3 (21–22 December 2020), respectively. Descriptive analyses and logistic regression analyses to identify the factors associated with suspected depression (WHO-5 ≤ 50) were conducted. Data showed that the mean WHO-5 scores in three time points were 56.17, 57.27, and 53.93, respectively. The risk of suspected depression was increased by about 1.5 times for females, 2.5–3 times among 18–24 year-olds compared to ages above 65 years, 1.5 times for singles, 2 times for those with chronic illnesses, and 2–3 times for people living in poverty. The main study findings show that German adult SWB is lower than pre-pandemic reference values. Special focus should be placed on vulnerable groups, such as females, younger persons, and people living in poverty who are most prone to a reduction in SWB and therefore suspected depression.

Keywords: COVID-19; depression; mental health; WHO-5; psychological distress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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