Coronavirus (COVID-19): mental health tracker study - wave 2 report

Footnotes

1. Because analysis included only those who completed both Wave 1 and Wave 2, the Wave 1 rates reported in this report will describe the rates seen in Wave 1 for those respondents that went on to complete the Wave 2 questionnaire. This will cause some of the Wave 1 rates reported in this report to differ to those reported in the Wave 1 Report published in Oct 2020, which reported on entire Wave 1 sample, irrespective of who went on to complete Wave 2.

2. SEG measure categories AB-C1-C2-DE. Higher SEG (i.e., top-half): AB = Higher & intermediate managerial, administrative, professional occupations, C1 = Supervisory, clerical & junior managerial, administrative, professional occupations. Lower SEG (i.e., bottom-half): C2 = Skilled manual occupations, DE = Semi-skilled & unskilled manual occupations, unemployed and lowest grade occupations. (ONS, 2001).

3. Findings in this category were based on responses to questions on the mental health measure called the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; Kroenke et al., 2001), which assesses frequency of depressive symptoms over the previous two weeks.

4. SEG measure categories AB-C1-C2-DE. Higher SEG (i.e., top-half): AB = Higher & intermediate managerial, administrative, professional occupations, C1 = Supervisory, clerical & junior managerial, administrative, professional occupations. Lower SEG (i.e., bottom-half): C2 = Skilled manual occupations, DE = Semi-skilled & unskilled manual occupations, unemployed and lowest grade occupations. (ONS, 2001).

5. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the mental health measure called the Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006) scale, which asks about frequency of anxiety symptoms in the last 2 weeks.

6. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) assesses mental distress and mental ill-health; a high-GHQ-12 score suggests the presence of a possible psychiatric disorder.

7. Mental wellbeing was measured using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale: respondents are awarded a wellbeing score by adding together 7 questions (range: very low wellbeing =7, very high wellbeing =35). Scores were adjusted using Rasch transformation. Average scores (means) are used to investigate differences between subgroups.

8. Loneliness was measured using 3 items, with a score of 3 indicating no loneliness and a score of 9 equating to very high loneliness; Social support was measured using four questions, with a range of 4 (low social support) to 20 (high social support).

9. Respondents were asked to indicate on a 10-point scale how distressed they had felt in the past week, on a range of 0, indicating feeling no distress, to 10, indicating feeling extreme distress; Respondents were asked to rate their life satisfaction on a scale from 0, indicating extremely dissatisfied to 10, indicating extremely satisfied.

10. For further information on how Scotland transitioned out of lockdown see: https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-scotlands-route-map/#phase1-routemapthroughandoutofthecrisis

11. To access this report see: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-covid-19-scovid-mental-health-tracker-study-wave-1-report/

12. The published paper (O'Connor et al., 2020) can be found here

13. The statistical tests to assess change from Wave 1 to Wave 2 used included Repeated Measures ANOVAs and General Linear Models. To test subgroup differences t-tests and chi-square tests were used. For all tests a p-value equal to or smaller than 0.05 used as a cut-off for statistical significance.

14. The high risk group included respondents who were aged over 70 years old and had underlying health conditions.

15. SEG measure categories AB-C1-C2-DE. Higher SEG (i.e., top-half): AB = Higher & intermediate managerial, administrative, professional occupations, C1 = Supervisory, clerical & junior managerial, administrative, professional occupations. Lower SEG (i.e., bottom-half): C2 = Skilled manual occupations, DE = Semi-skilled & unskilled manual occupations, unemployed and lowest grade occupations. (ONS, 2001).

16. As noted in the methods a number of groups were removed due to high attrition rates. Additionally those with physical health problems were included in the analysis.

17. For the purposes of this report, scores above the cut-off for moderate to severe depression are tracked so as to mirror the most commonly used indicator in mental health research, and which suggests that treatment (psychotherapy or medication) may be recommended.

18. Measured using the Patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) using a cut-off score ≥10 to indicate moderate to severe depression

19. Measured using the 7 item Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) using a cut-off score ≥10 to indicate moderate to severe anxiety

20. Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) © NHS Health Scotland, University of Warwick and University of Edinburgh, 2008, all rights reserved.