The mental health of UK women, ethnic minorities particularly affected by pandemics

In the UK, men from ethnic minorities and women may have worse mental health decline than white British men, according to a study published on January 6, 2021 in the journal Open Access PLOS AON with Eugenio Proto and Climent Quintana-Domeque of institutions including the University of Glasgow and the University of Exeter, UK.

The pandemic of COVID-19, and the measures put in place to limit the spread of the virus, have had a profound impact on the lives of citizens worldwide. The authors of this study examined changes in mental health associated with the pandemic across ethnic groups in the UK.

The researchers used data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, comparing responses from participants between 2017 and 2019 (ie: before the pandemic) with responses from the same participants in April 2020 ( ie: during the pandemic, when there were real “lock-in” restrictions in place in the UK). A total of 14,523 people provided responses both before and during the pandemic; 91.5 per cent described the ethnicity as White Britain and the remaining 8.5 per cent as other ethnicities (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic, or BAME). Participants were asked to describe their health, including their mental health. These responses were used to measure levels of mental distress, on a scale of 0 to 36.

The authors found that the average mental distress for individuals had increased from 11.28 [95% CI: 11.17, 11.40] in 2017-2019 to 12.51 [95% CI: 12.38, 12.63] in April 2020, a normal movement increase of 0.21 [95% CI: 0.19, 0.23]. Women experienced a larger average increase in mental distress than men, while BAME men experienced a larger average increase than British white men. While white British men saw an average increase in mental distress of 0.6 units on this scale, white British women experienced an average increase of 1.6 units. BAME men received an average increase of 1.5 units, and BAME women an increase of 1.7 units.

Although the findings of the study may be limited by the sample size of BAME individuals (only 1,066 of the participants described themselves as BAME), and by measuring relatively early mental distress in the pandemic, the research suggests that the pandemic may have a significant impact on the mental well-being of women and BAME individuals. The authors state that their initial results appear to indicate that “the impact of lock-in requirements and social distance on mental health is exacerbated among ethnic minorities. “

The authors say: “Black, Asian, and minority ethnic women and men experienced a higher average increase in mental distress than British white men from 2017-2019 to April 2020.”

###

Peer review; Survey / Observation Inspection; People

Citation: Proto E, Quintana-Domeque C (2021) COVID-19 and mental health decline by race and gender in the UK. PLoS AON 16 (1): e0244419. https: //doi.org /10.1371 /iris.pole.0244419

Funding: The authors did not receive specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have stated that there are no competing interests.

In your cover use this URL to access the article which is freely available in PLOS AON: https: //magazines.plos.org /plosone /article? id =10.1371 /iris.pole.0244419