Table 1.
Prevalence of mental ill health and substance use before and during COVID-19 confinement
| CATALONIA before COVID | CATALONIA during COVID-19 Confinementa | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | % | N | % | |
| Depression | 3551 | 7.6% c | 31,873 | 22.8% |
| Anxietyb | 2621 | 6.7 b | 32,185 | 26.9% |
| Lack of mental well-being | 3536 | 26.2% c | 37,596 | 74.8% |
| Higher risk drinking | 1529 | 8.6% d | 37,261 | 9.1% |
| Smoking | 3557 | 25.6% c | 37,820 | 23.0% |
| Cannabis / hashish (in last 30 days) | 2044 | 11.9% d | 37,820 | 3.7% |
| Prescribed hypnosedatives | 2043 | 5.9% d | 37,820 | 17.7% |
| Non-prescribed hypnosedatives | 2044 | 0.6% d | 37,820 | 6.5.% |
aWeighted separately, but sequentially by distributions of gender (male or female), age (16–44, 45–64, and 65+ years), and educational level (primary, secondary, and university or higher) as reported by government statistics of the Catalan population [12]
bAnxiety was measured by Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7. There is no previous data from Catalonia with this instrument. It is compared with results of the Spanish National Health Survey (2017) [13], using a different instrument which reported a prevalence of 6.7% for chronic anxiety; the same survey found a prevalence of 6.7% for depression in the Spanish population
cCatalan Health Survey 2018 [15]
dSpanish Alcohol and Drug Survey 2017 [14], Catalonia only data. For drugs (hypnosedatives and cannabis) the prevalence estimates are based on % of people who reported having taken drugs in the last 30 days. For hypnosedatives with prescription, the data before COVID-19 also includes without prescription