Table 1:
Weighted socio-demographic characteristics and COVID-19 outcomes for Wave 19 and Wave 20 HILDA study population
| Wave 19a (Pre-pandemic) |
Wave 20a (After the onset of the pandemic) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower SES n = 3,268 |
Higher SES n = 13,911 |
p-valueb | Lower SES n = 2,968 |
Higher SES n = 12,961 |
p-valueb | |
| Mean (SD) or % | Mean (SD) or % |
Mean (SD) or % | Mean (SD) or % | |||
| Socio-demographic variables | ||||||
| Days under lockdown | – | – | – | 60.74 (29.46) | 65.32 (35.19) | 0.016* |
| Age (years) | 46.89 (19.45) | 44.93 (18.90) | 0.003* | 46.66 (19.66) | 45.36 (18.88) | 0.103 |
| Sex | 0.428 | 0.608 | ||||
| Male | 48.49 | 49.29 | 48.61 | 49.25 | ||
| Female | 51.51 | 50.71 | 51.39 | 50.75 | ||
| Household type | <0.001* | <0.001* | ||||
| Multi-person household | 83.94 | 88.70 | 83.77 | 88.72 | ||
| Lone person household | 16.06 | 11.30 | 16.23 | 11.28 | ||
| Marital status | <0.001* | <0.001* | ||||
| Married/de facto | 51.71 | 61.84 | 51.24 | 62.26 | ||
| Single | 48.29 | 38.17 | 48.76 | 37.74 | ||
| Highest education achieved | <0.001* | <0.001* | ||||
| Tertiary or higher education | 49.98 | 62.68 | 50.02 | 63.29 | ||
| Secondary education or lower | 50.02 | 37.32 | 49.98 | 36.71 | ||
| Employment | <0.001* | <0.001* | ||||
| Employed | 50.65 | 66.58 | 48.82 | 63.82 | ||
| Unemployed/not in the labour force | 49.35 | 33.42 | 51.18 | 36.18 | ||
| Long-term health conditions | <0.001* | <0.001* | ||||
| 1 + health condition | 41.13 | 25.80 | 40.72 | 26.69 | ||
| No health conditions | 58.87 | 74.20 | 59.28 | 73.32 | ||
| PCS score | 46.36 (11.45) | 49.86 (10.31) | <0.001* | 46.98 (11.92) | 50.40 (10.19) | <0.001* |
| MHI-5 score | 68.83 (19.54) | 72.53 (17.71) | <0.001* | 68.39 (19.41) | 71.06 (18.13) | <0.001* |
| MCS score | 45.56 (11.72) | 47.57 (10.93) | <0.001* | 45.07 (12.25) | 46.46 (11.31) | 0.001* |
| COVID-19 outcomes c | ||||||
| Life changed due to COVID-19 | – | – | – | 88.09 | 92.36 | <0.001* |
| Change was for the worsed | – | – | – | 48.58 | 49.33 | 0.704 |
| Learnt from homee | – | – | – | 88.13 | 91.94 | 0.294 |
| Experienced interruption in studiesf | – | – | – | 37.53 | 39.33 | 0.671 |
| Increased time spent working from homeg | – | – | – | 19.86 | 36.61 | <0.001* |
| Decreased work hoursg | – | – | – | 25.53 | 25.12 | 0.822 |
| Decreased incomeg | – | – | – | 23.38 | 23.64 | 0.866 |
| Employment terminated/redundancy/ceased operation of businessg | – | – | – | 6.91 | 8.29 | 0.139 |
| Claimed JobKeeper/employer claimed JobKeeper on behalf | – | – | – | 21.50 | 23.51 | 0.866 |
| Received Coronavirus Supplement from government | – | – | – | 6.88 | 3.95 | 0.229 |
| Disruption with any health service provider | – | – | – | 24.15 | 30.41 | <0.001* |
| Disruption with general medical services | – | – | – | 13.95 | 13.16 | 0.446 |
| Disruption with dental services | – | – | – | 8.23 | 15.37 | <0.001* |
| Disruption with mental health providers | – | – | – | 2.59 | 2.13 | 0.200 |
| Disruption with other allied health providers | – | – | – | 5.94 | 8.48 | <0.001* |
* p < 0.05.
aData have been weighted using cross-sectional responding person population weights and self-completion questionnaire responding person population weights provided by HILDA.
b p-values for differences between lower and higher SES calculated using regression analyses for continuous variables and Rao-Scott chi-square tests for categorical variables.
cCOVID-19 outcomes are categorical with a yes/no response. Percentages (%) presented in this section report the proportion with a yes response for each of these outcomes.
dQuestion only asked to participants who reported life changed due to COVID-19.
eQuestion only asked to participants who were currently enrolled in secondary school.
fQuestion only asked to participant who undertook tertiary or higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
gQuestion only asked to participants who were employed, self-employed, or owned a business at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (in March 2020).
Abbreviations: MCS = Mental Component Summary; MHI-5 = Mental Health Inventory-5; PCS = Physical Component Summary; SD = standard deviation; SES = socio-economic status.