When shops, restaurants, cinemas and theaters remained closed. When gatherings with friends and family were prohibited. When school lessons had to take place at home in children’s rooms. When it wasn’t about traveling.
Nowadays, most people seem to have forgotten these times. However, the various measures taken by politicians are likely to have caused enormous stress for many. Fear about work, worry about sick relatives, nervous tension when parents and children sit together in a small apartment and have to reconcile home office and homeschooling : all this has not gone without its effects, as numerous studies show.
Network of differential interactions between psychosocial factors, mental health and health-related quality of life in women and men Summary Psychosocial factors affect mental health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in complex ways, but gender differences in these interactions remain poorly understood. We investigated whether psychosocial factors, such as social support and personal and work concerns, affect mental health and HRQoL differently in women and men during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between June and October 2020, the first part of a COVID-19-specific program was carried out within the cohort study "Characteristics and course of AB heart failure stages and determinants of progression (STAAB)", a sample representative stratified by age and gender of the general population of Würzburg, Germany. Using psychometric networks, we first established the complex relationships between personal social support, personal and work-related concerns, and their interactions with anxiety, depression, and HRQoL. Second, we test for gender differences by comparing expected influence, edge weight differences, and network stability. The network comparison revealed a significant difference in the overall network structure. The male (N = 1,370), but not the female (N = 1,520) network showed a positive link between work-related worry and anxiety. In both networks, anxiety was the most central variable. These findings provide additional evidence that the complex interaction of psychosocial factors with mental health and HRQoL is critically dependent on gender. Our results are relevant for the development of gender-specific interventions to increase resilience in times of pandemic crisis. |
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The crucial factor is anxiety
How and to what extent have these experiences affected the mental health and quality of life of women and men in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic? This has been investigated by a research team from the University and University Hospital of Würzburg. In detail, the scientists were interested in the relationship between concerns about the workplace and about other people with a person’s own mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, and with their overall quality of life, how these are influenced by support from friends or at work, and whether the results show differences between men and women.
The findings are unequivocal: in this complex of different variables and influencing factors, anxiety plays a central role. However, there are clear gender-specific differences: “In men, anxiety increases along with worry about work, an effect that is not shown in women. On the other hand, we were able to record an increase in anxiety levels in women parallel to an increase in their worries about family and friends," says Grit Hein. In addition, the study shows that women at these times respond positively to support of friends and family by experiencing a better quality of life. In men, this phenomenon did not manifest itself.
Data on the influence of gender was lacking
Grit Hein is a professor of Translational Social Neuroscience at the Clinic and Polyclinic of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy of the University Hospital. She and her postdoc Martin Weiß led the study, the results of which have now been published in the journal Scientific Reports .
"In the past, numerous studies have investigated the influence of psychosocial factors such as support from friends and colleagues and financial, professional or personal concerns on mental health and quality of life. However, data on whether these correlations are same for men and women, women were missing," says Grit Hein, explaining the background of the study. Expanding on previous studies, the Würzburg research team has now examined the influence of these factors in relation to gender.
A study with around 2900 participants
The team obtained the relevant information from a large group of test subjects: the participants of the so-called STAAB study. This study comprises a cohort of around 5000 volunteers randomly selected from the general population of Würzburg and originally focused on the development of cardiovascular diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the program was spontaneously expanded to include the psychosocial impacts of the pandemic, lockdown and other side effects.
A total of 2,890 people (1,520 women and 1,370 men) participated in the survey. Their ages ranged from 34 to 85 years, with a median of 60 years . Between June and October 2020, they had to complete an extensive questionnaire about their mental health. Among other things, they were asked to provide information about the support they felt from their social environment, their peers and superiors, and whether they had someone to talk to about their problems. They were also asked how burdened they were by the ban on contact with parents and grandparents and how much stress they felt at work or school. Financial problems or concerns about them were the subject of more questions.
To evaluate the data, Hein and his team used a special method: so-called network analysis. "Analyses based on a network approach allow a graphical representation of all variables as individual nodes," explains Hein. Thus, it is possible to identify variables that are particularly related to other variables. The network can, for example, show complex relationships between symptoms of different mental disorders and thus explain possible comorbidities.
Results conform to traditional gender norms
Grit Hein and Martin Weiß were not surprised by the results. "The observation that men are more strongly associated with work and women more strongly with family and friends goes back to traditional gender norms and roles," explains Hein. Therefore, men tend to feel more affected by job insecurity and unemployment, which leads to greater psychological stress. Women, on the other hand, experience more tension when they feel like they are neglecting their family.
It is also plausible that women fare better psychologically when they receive support from friends and family: "This is in line with the traditional female family role, which includes a greater tendency to maintain close social contacts and seek social support to reduce stress." . and increase well-being," says Hein.
Although these findings are unequivocal, study leaders point out a number of limitations. The most important: "Given that the COVID-19 pandemic presented a very specific context, it remains to be clarified whether our results are transferable to general situations independent of the pandemic." However, one finding is indisputable: "Our results underline the need to consider social aspects in therapeutic interventions to improve the mental health of women and men."
