The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on gambling habit: A cross-sectional study from Italy
| Autor: | Luisa Mastrobattista, Andrea Amerio, Anna Odone, Claudia Mortali, Alessandra Lugo, Silvano Gallus, Luca Paroni, Adele Minutillo, Giuseppe Gorini, Giulia Carreras, Roberta Pacifici, Biagio Tinghino, Chiara Stival |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Multivariate analysis Cross-sectional study media_common.quotation_subject Medicine (miscellaneous) Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems lockdown Habits poly-addiction Quality of life medicine Humans Psychiatry media_common COVID-19 Italy gambling mental health biology SARS-CoV-2 Addiction General Medicine Odds ratio biology.organism_classification Mental health Psychiatry and Mental health Clinical Psychology Cross-Sectional Studies Communicable Disease Control Quality of Life Anxiety Cannabis medicine.symptom Psychology |
| Popis: | Background and aims Few preliminary studies have shown an impact of COVID-19 confinement on gambling habits. We aim to evaluate short-term effects of lockdown restrictions on gambling behaviors in Italy. Methods Within the project Lost in Italy, a web-based cross-sectional study was conducted on a representative sample of 6,003 Italians aged 18–74 years, enrolled during April 27–May 3 2020, and were asked to report gambling activity before the lockdown and at the time of interview. Results The prevalence of participants reporting any gambling decreased from 16.3% before lockdown to 9.7% during lockdown. Traditional gambling decreased from 9.9 to 2.4% and online gambling from 9.9 to 8.0%. Among gamblers, median time of gambling grew from 4.5 to 5.1 h/month. Among non-players before lockdown, 1.1% started playing. Among players before lockdown, 19.7% increased gambling activity. Multivariate analysis showed an increase in gambling activity in younger generations (p for trend = 0.001), current smokers (odds ratio, OR 1.48), users of electronic cigarettes (OR 1.63), heated tobacco products (OR 1.82), cannabis (OR 5.16), psychotropic drugs (OR 3.93), and subjects having hazardous alcohol drinking (OR 1.93). Self-reported low quality of life (OR 1.97), low sleep quantity (OR 2.00), depressive symptoms (OR 3.06) and anxiety symptoms (OR 2.93) were significantly related to an increase in total gambling activity during lockdown. Discussion and conclusions Although gambling substantially decreased during lockdown, time spent in gambling slightly increased. The strong relationship found between compromised mental health and addictive behaviors calls for urgent policies to prevent vulnerable populations from increasing and developing severe gambling addiction. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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