The DOI matches its Crossref record; 8 of the 8 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Mental health of people in Australia in the first month of COVID ‐19 restrictions: a national survey
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the population prevalence of clinically significant symptoms of depression, generalised anxiety, thoughts of being better off dead, irritability, and high optimism about the future, and of direct experience of COVID-19, loss of employment caused by COVID-19 restrictions, worry about contracting COVID-19, or major disadvantage because of the restrictions; to examine the relationship between these experiences and reporting mental symptoms. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS: Anonymous online survey of adult Australian residents, 3 April - 2 May 2020. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported psychological status during the preceding fortnight assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9; symptoms of depression) and the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7). Optimism about the future was assessed with a 10-point study-specific visual analogue scale. RESULTS: 13 829 respondents contributed complete response data. The estimated prevalence of clinically significant symptoms of depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 10) was 27.6% (95% CI, 26.1-29.1%) and of clinically significant symptoms of anxiety (GAD-7 ≥ 10) 21.0% (95% CI, 19.6-22.4%); 14.6% of respondents (95% CI, 13.5-16.0%) reported thoughts of being better off dead or self-harm (PHQ-9, item 9) on at least some days and 59.2% (95% CI, 57.6-60.7%) that they were more irritable (GAD-7, item 6). An estimated 28.3% of respondents (95% CI, 27.1-29.6%) reported great optimism about the future (score ≥ 8). People who had lost jobs, were worried about contracting COVID-19, or for whom the restrictions had a highly adverse impact on daily life were more likely to report symptoms of depression or anxiety, and less likely to report high optimism than people without these experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health problems were widespread among Australians during the first month of the stage two COVID-19 restrictions; in addition, about one-quarter of respondents reported mild to moderate symptoms of depression or anxiety. A public mental health response that includes universal, selective and indicated clinical interventions is needed.
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Citations
Cites
The PHQ-9: Validity of a brief depression severity measure
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A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder: The GAD-7
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006) · Archives of Internal Medicine · doi:10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092 · Cited by 31,765
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Towards an integrated motivational–volitional model of suicidal behaviour
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Cited by
Varma, P., Junge, M., Meaklim, H., & Jackson, M. L. (2021) · Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110236 · Cited by 719
Positive psychology in a pandemic: buffering, bolstering, and building mental health
Waters, L., Algoe, S. B., Dutton, J., Emmons, R., Fredrickson, B. L., Heaphy, E., Moskowitz, J. T., Neff, K., Niemiec, R., Pury, C., et al. (2022) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2021.1871945 · Cited by 377
“In Australia, mental health problems were at least twice as prevalent in 2020 as in nonpandemic circumstances (Fisher et al., 2020).”
BackgroundAnxiety linked to COVID-19: A systematic review comparing anxiety rates in different populations
Saeed, H., Eslami, A., Nassif, N. T., Simpson, A. M., & Lal, S. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph19042189 · Cited by 76
“Age was yet another factor linked to heightened anxiety levels, with the majority of included papers identifying younger age groups as more at risk for anxiety [11,35,39,45,54,68].”
BackgroundInfluentialExploring Community-Based Suicide Prevention in the Context of Rural Australia: A Qualitative Study
Grattidge, L., Hoang, H., Mond, J., Lees, D., Visentin, D., & Auckland, S. (2023) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph20032644 · Cited by 25
Inequalities in access to mental health treatment by Australian youths during the COVID-19 pandemic
Gao, C. X., McDonald, L. P., Hamilton, M. P., Simons, K., Menssink, J. M., Filia, K., Rickwood, D., Rice, S., Hickie, I., McGorry, P. D., et al. (2023) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.20220345 · Cited by 25
Metadata
- Authors
- Fisher, J. R., Tran, T. D., Hammarberg, K., Sastry, J., Nguyen, H., Rowe, H., Popplestone, S., Stocker, R., Stubber, C., & Kirkman, M.
- Venue
- Medical Journal of Australia
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2020-10-26
- Volume
- 213
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 458-464
- ISSN
- 0025-729X (ISSN-L)
- 1326-5377
- OpenAlex
- W3035454237
- Cited by
- 297
- References
- 8
- FWCI
- 22.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
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- Fisher, J. R., Tran, T. D., Hammarberg, K., Sastry, J., Nguyen, H., Rowe, H., Popplestone, S., Stocker, R., Stubber, C., & Kirkman, M. (2020). Mental health of people in Australia in the first month of COVID ‐19 restrictions: a national survey. Medical Journal of Australia. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50831
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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