COVID-19 and Mental Health: a Longitudinal Population Study from Norway

Hans Hvide; Julian  Johnsen

doi:10.1007/s10654-021-00836-3

COVID-19 and Mental Health: a Longitudinal Population Study from Norway

Hans Hvide^* (Corresponding Author), Julian Johnsen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Existing research has found negative short-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health problems, but longer-term effects have been less documented. Using newly released register data on all general practitioner consultations in Norway through 2020 (about 14 million consultations in total), we find that during the spring and early summer 2020, the number of psychological cases initially increased relative to prior years, but then fell back towards the level of prior years during the summer 2020. In early September 2020, the number of cases accelerated, a pattern that held up through December 2020, so that the gap between 2020 and prior years became
largest end-of-year. Our findings suggest that the accumulated effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health far exceeds the short-term effects. The effects were particularly strong for females and for residents in urban areas.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	167–172
Number of pages	6
Journal	European Journal of Epidemiology
Volume	37
Early online date	27 Jan 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-021-00836-3
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding
Open access funding provided by University of Bergen (incl Haukeland University Hospital).

Acknowledgments
We thank, without implicating, several health professionals that have provided valuable feedback to our work: John Agnar Kvamme (MD and GP), Silje Vigsnæs (Cand. Psychol and Chief Psychologist at Betanien Hospital in Bergen, Tor Jacob Moe (MD and former Chief Psychiatrist at Haukeland University Hospital), and Kristin Greve-Isdahl Mohn (MD and Phd)
Funding
Open access funding provided by University of Bergen (incl Haukeland University Hospital).

Data Availability Statement

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-021-00836-3.

Keywords

primary care
mental health
psychological disorder
psychological symptoms

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Cite this

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abstract = "Existing research has found negative short-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health problems, but longer-term effects have been less documented. Using newly released register data on all general practitioner consultations in Norway through 2020 (about 14 million consultations in total), we find that during the spring and early summer 2020, the number of psychological cases initially increased relative to prior years, but then fell back towards the level of prior years during the summer 2020. In early September 2020, the number of cases accelerated, a pattern that held up through December 2020, so that the gap between 2020 and prior years becamelargest end-of-year. Our findings suggest that the accumulated effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health far exceeds the short-term effects. The effects were particularly strong for females and for residents in urban areas.",

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COVID-19 and Mental Health: a Longitudinal Population Study from Norway

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Cite this