Depression, Anxiety and Stress during COVID-19: Associations with Changes in Physical Activity, Sleep, Tobacco and Alcohol Use in Australian Adults
Open accessAbstract
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has enforced dramatic changes to daily living including economic and health impacts. Evidence for the impact of these changes on our physical and mental health and health behaviors is limited. We examined the associations between psychological distress and changes in selected health behaviors since the onset of COVID-19 in Australia. An online survey was distributed in April 2020 and included measures of depression, anxiety, stress, physical activity, sleep, alcohol intake and cigarette smoking. The survey was completed by 1491 adults (mean age 50.5 ± 14.9 years, 67% female). Negative change was reported for physical activity (48.9%), sleep (40.7%), alcohol (26.6%) and smoking (6.9%) since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Significantly higher scores in one or more psychological distress states were found for females, and those not in a relationship, in the lowest income category, aged 18–45 years, or with a chronic illness. Negative changes in physical activity, sleep, smoking and alcohol intake were associated with higher depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. Health-promotion strategies directed at adopting or maintaining positive health-related behaviors should be utilized to address increases in psychological distress during the pandemic. Ongoing evaluation of the impact of lifestyle changes associated with the pandemic is needed.
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“For descriptive purposes, and following past research (Newby et al., 2020; Stanton et al., 2020), different cutoff scores were used to determine severity levels of depression ( normal = 0–4, mild = 5–6, moderate = 7–10, severe = 11–13, extreme = ≥14) and anxiety ( normal = 0–3, mild = 4–5, moderate…”
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- Authors
- Stanton, R., To, Q. G., Khalesi, S., Williams, S. L., Alley, S. J., Thwaite, T. L., Fenning, A. S., & Vandelanotte, C.
- Affiliations
- Central Queensland University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Stanton, Robert
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2020-06-07
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 4065
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7312903
- OpenAlex
- W3033503208
- Cited by
- 1,386
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 59 · 2024: 132 · 2023: 221 · 2022: 405 · 2021: 436 · 2020: 104
- FWCI
- 116.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HRB National Drugs Library (Health Research Board) (submittedVersion)
- Acquire (CQUniversity) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Universiti Sains Malaysia
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › COVID-19 Prevention and Impact
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, depression, anxiety, stress, psychological distress, physical activity, sleep, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, health behavior, lifestyle modification, socioeconomic factors, chronic disease, gender differences
- MeSH terms
- Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adult, Anxiety, Australia, Depression, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Pneumonia, Viral, Sleep, Coronavirus Infections, Young Adult, Pandemics
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