PARIS, March 10 — Some have called it a “tsunami,” others a “mental health pandemic,” but Covid-19 might not have had such a significant impact on the general population.
A new scientific study has qualified the impact of the pandemic on mental health worldwide, which it now considers to be “minimal to small,” apart from among one specific group: women.
Studies, surveys, testimonies, and health authorities around the world have been unanimous for nearly three years about the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic has considerably affected people’s mental health.
This observation has led to increased efforts in prevention and in tailored treatments to limit the consequences of these disorders linked to stress, anxiety and depression.
Now, a new study conducted by researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, contradicts — if not qualifies — all previous research on the subject, suggesting that the pandemic might not have had such a detrimental impact on mental health.
A ‘minimal to small’ effect
In recent months, countless studies have reported a generalised decline in mental health in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic.
These findings have been supported by health authorities, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), which in March 2022 reported a 25 per cent increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the Canadian researchers, who have conducted the most recent work on the subject, are now suggesting that ”inconsistencies in study quality and misinterpretation of cross-sectional data may have led to misleading results.”
This led them to review as many as 94,411 titles and abstracts, including 137 studies from 134 cohorts, in order to compare mental health symptoms before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Published in the British Medical Journal, this research is based, more specifically, on a comparison of general mental health and symptoms of anxiety and depression in the general population as of January 1, 2020, compared with a period from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2019.
All studies analysed were required to have at least 90 per cent identical participants for the time periods examined, while the impact of Covid-19 on mental health was expressed as standardised mean differences (SMDs), with less than 0.2 considered a “minimal effect” and more than 0.8 considered a “large effect.”
According to the results, “no changes were found for general mental health or anxiety symptoms.”
But this was not the case for depression symptoms, which “worsened minimally” with the Covid-19 pandemic. The researchers report a standardised mean difference of 0.12, and thus a “minimal effect” for these disorders.
“Across population groups, results suggest that, rather than a mental health crisis, at a population level there has been a high level of resilience during Covid-19, and changes in general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms have been minimal to small with no changes detected in most analyses,” the study authors write.
Women affected more significantly
However, the researchers point out disparities between the different groups of the general population, with women having suffered more from the Covid-19 pandemic.
In any case, they experienced a more significant worsening of symptoms of anxiety, depression and general mental health than the rest of the population, with a standardised mean difference of 0.20 to 0.22, an effect considered “small.”
“This is consistent with evidence that women and female members of society have experienced a disproportionately greater burden from the pandemic,” the researchers note.
And they were not the only ones to experience a worsening of their mental health, although not as much as suggested in previous studies.
The elderly, students, and people who identify as belonging to a sexual or gender minority also appear to have experienced a worsening of depressive symptoms by “minimal to small” amounts, the research points out.
As for parents, they have reportedly seen their mental health decline, but the researchers specify that, in this case, the data is based on a limited number of studies and participants.
A bigger picture
As surprising as these results may be, they should be treated with caution, if only because they exclude certain groups of the general population.
Based on an extensive meta-analysis, the study authors admit that it does not include enough data from low-income countries and children.
The authors believe that caution should be exercised in interpreting these results, bearing in mind that the pandemic “affected the lives of many people.”
As a result, they call on the relevant authorities to “continue to ensure that mental health supports are available and respond to population needs.”
Speaking to The Guardian about the McGill study findings, Dr Gemma Knowles, from the Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London, notes that this research potentially shows that some people’s mental health worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic while others’ improved, explaining the lack of an overall increase in symptoms.
Moreover, the scientist strikes a more cautionary tone, suggesting that the study “risks obscuring important effects among the most affected and disadvantaged groups and, from that, obscuring possible widening of inequalities in mental distress that occurred because of the pandemic.”
For its part, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been warning governments for the past three years about the effect of the pandemic on populations, considering just a few months ago, in June 2022, that “the impact of Covid-19 on mental health cannot be made light of.”
The WHO recalls in particular the impact of prolonged school closures and social isolation on young people, not to mention the risk of family stress or abuse linked to lockdowns, as well as the increased stress and violence suffered by women, or the “millions of people [who] have fallen below the poverty line” due to the pandemic. These are all factors that can affect the mental health of these specific groups.
And this is something that, despite their findings, the McGill researchers do not overlook. “Pandemic or not, there is a strong need to provide preventive mental health interventions for those most at risk of poor mental health outcomes,” they conclude. — ETX Studio
