Mental Distress Among Norwegian Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Predictors in Initial Response and Subsequent Trajectories

Li Lu; Laurie J Hannigan; Ragnhild E Brandlistuen; Ragnar Nesvåg; Lill Trogstad; Per Magnus; Anna Bára Unnarsdóttir; Unnur A Valdimarsdóttir; Ole A Andreassen; Helga Ask

doi:10.3389/ijph.2023.1606164

Mental Distress Among Norwegian Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Predictors in Initial Response and Subsequent Trajectories

Int J Public Health. 2023 Oct 25:68:1606164. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2023.1606164. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Li Lu^{1

2

3}, Laurie J Hannigan^{3

4

5}, Ragnhild E Brandlistuen^{6

7}, Ragnar Nesvåg³, Lill Trogstad⁸, Per Magnus⁹, Anna Bára Unnarsdóttir¹⁰, Unnur A Valdimarsdóttir^{10

11

12}, Ole A Andreassen^{2

13}, Helga Ask^{3

14}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
² Norment Centre, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
³ Department of Mental Disorders, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
⁵ Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
⁶ Department of Child Health and Development, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁷ The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁸ Division of Infection Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁹ Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
¹⁰ Centre of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
¹¹ Unit of Integrative Epidemiology, Department of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹² Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States.
¹³ Norment Centre, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
¹⁴ Promenta Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

Objectives: To identify factors associated with change in mental distress at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, relative to pre-pandemic levels, and with changes during the following 1.5 years. Methods: The prospective Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study collected eight waves of data during the pandemic (March 2020-September 2021) in 105,972 adult participants used for this analyses. A piecewise latent growth model was fitted to identify initial level and longitudinal changes in mental distress. Results: Mental distress peaked at the beginning of the pandemic. Factors associated with initial increases were: medical conditions, living alone, history of psychiatric disorders, lower education, female sex, younger age, and obesity. Being quarantined or infected with SARS-CoV-2 were associated with increasing distress while being vaccinated was associated with reduced mental distress. Conclusion: Having a chronic disease and being quarantined or infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus were associated with more mental distress during the pandemic. This knowledge is important for planning interventions to support individuals during future pandemics and other societal crises.

Keywords: COVID-19; MoBa; latent growth modelling; mental distress trajectory; quarantine.

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cohort Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Mental Disorders* / epidemiology
Mental Disorders* / psychology
Pandemics / prevention & control
Prospective Studies
SARS-CoV-2

Grants and funding

The MoBa Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Education and Research. The COVIDMENT project was supported by NordForsk through the funding to “mental morbidity trajectories in COVID-19 across risk populations of five nations” (Project number: 105668). HA, RB, and RN were supported by the Research Council of Norway (324620). LL was supported by the Youth Talent Fund (GG6J010) from Xi’an Jiaotong University. LH was supported by the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (#2018058, #2019097). The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication.