Trends in depression risk before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Using 11 years of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey data set for 2011 to 2021, we track the evolution of depression risk for U.S. states and territories before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use these data in conjunction...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2023-05, Vol.18 (5), p.e0285282-e0285282
Main Authors: Villas-Boas, Sofia B, White, Justin S, Kaplan, Scott, Hsia, Renee Y
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Cellular telephones
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Datasets
Demographics
Demography
Depression - epidemiology
Depression, Mental
Diagnosis
Disease control
Economic conditions
Health risks
Health surveillance
Humans
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mental depression
Mental disorders
Mental health
Pandemics
People and Places
Polls & surveys
Prevalence
Regression analysis
Risk factors
Risk taking
Social Sciences
Subgroups
Surveillance systems
Trends
Unemployment
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Summary:Using 11 years of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey data set for 2011 to 2021, we track the evolution of depression risk for U.S. states and territories before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use these data in conjunction with unemployment and COVID case data by state and by year to describe changes in the prevalence of self-reported diagnosis with a depressive disorder over time and especially after the onset of COVID in 2020 and 2021. We further investigate heterogeneous associations of depression risk by demographic characteristics. Regression analyses of these associations adjust for state-specific and period-specific factors using state and year-fixed effects. First, we find that depression risk had been increasing in the US in years preceding the pandemic. Second, we find no significant average changes in depression risk at the onset of COVID in 2020 relative to previous trends, but estimate a 3% increase in average depression risk in 2021. Importantly, we find meaningful variation in terms of changes in depression risk during the pandemic across demographic subgroups.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0285282