Table 3.
Association of elevated anxiety and depression, COVID-19 financial impacts and problematic substance use and high-risk gambling motives among online gamblers (N = 1081)
| Key factors | High-risk gambling motives | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Because it helps when feeling nervous or depressed (n = 68) | To win back money lost gambling (n = 89) | To earn income (n = 118) | |||||||
| n | OR | 95% CI | n | OR | 95% CI | n | OR | 95% CI | |
| GAD-7 moderate anxiety | 27 | 3.36*** | 2.01–5.62 | 35 | 3.42*** | 2.16–5.41 | 37 | 2.36*** | 1.55–3.61 |
| GAD-7 severe anxiety | 19 | 3.66*** | 2.07–6.47 | 22 | 3.14*** | 1.85–5.31 | 35 | 4.59*** | 2.91–7.24 |
| PHQ-9 moderately severe depression | 20 | 4.27*** | 2.43–7.52 | 27 | 4.77*** | 2.88–7.90 | 36 | 5.27*** | 3.34–8.34 |
| PHQ-9 severe depression | 13 | 5.21*** | 2.65–10.23 | 12 | 3.28*** | 1.67–6.46 | 17 | 3.88*** | 2.12–7.10 |
| Lost employment | 15 | 1.38 | 0.76–2.51 | 23 | 1.78* | 1.06–2.91 | 39 | 2.72*** | 1.78–4.14 |
| Reduced work hours | 15 | 3.54*** | 1.91–6.58 | 11 | 1.63 | 0.83–3.19 | 17 | 2.05* | 1.17–3.62 |
| Negative impact on household income | 41 | 1.42 | 0.86–2.45 | 54 | 1.46 | 0.94–2.27 | 81 | 2.18*** | 1.45–3.28 |
| Gambled online under influence of alcohol | 30 | 9.19*** | 5.27–16.05 | 36 | 7.71*** | 4.70–12.67 | 35 | 4.36*** | 2.75–6.92 |
| Gambled online under influence of cannabis | 11 | 7.11*** | 3.35–15.11 | 16 | 9.31*** | 4.70–18.44 | 16 | 6.36*** | 3.26–12.43 |
Statistics are cases (n), odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals
GAD-7 General Anxiety Disorder questionnaire, PHQ-9 Patient Health Questionnaire
*p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001