Information seeking, mental health and loneliness: Longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing study.

Autor: Wilding S; School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom., O'Connor DB; School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom. Electronic address: d.b.oconnor@leeds.ac.uk., Ferguson E; School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom., Wetherall K; Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom., Cleare S; Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom., O'Carroll RE; Division of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom., Robb KA; Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom., O'Connor RC; Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Psychiatry research [Psychiatry Res] 2022 Nov; Vol. 317, pp. 114876. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Oct 02.
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114876
Abstrakt: Information seeking has generally been seen as an adaptive response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it may also result in negative outcomes on mental health. The present study tests whether reporting COVID-related information seeking throughout the pandemic is associated with subsequently poorer mental health outcomes. A quota-based, non-probability-sampling methodology was used to recruit a nationally representative sample. COVID-related information seeking was assessed at six waves along with symptoms of depression, anxiety, mental wellbeing and loneliness (N = 1945). Hierarchical linear modelling was used to assess the relationship between COVID-related information seeking and mental health outcomes. Information seeking was found to reduce over time. Overall, women, older and higher socioeconomic group individuals reported higher levels of information seeking. At waves 1-4 (March-June 2020) the majority of participants reported that they sought information on Covid 1-5 times per day, this decreased to less than once per day in waves 5 and 6 (July-November 2020). Higher levels of information seeking were associated with poorer mental health outcomes, particularly clinically significant levels of anxiety. Use of a non-probability sampling method may have been a study limitation, nevertheless, reducing or managing information seeking behaviour may be one method to reduce anxiety during pandemics and other public health crises.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None of the authors have any conflict of interest to declare.
(Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)
Databáze: MEDLINE