Table 5. Associations between the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis and socioeconomic status, highest level of education, unemployment before the crisis and working in contact with potentially infected people; adjusted for experiences of COVID-19 symptoms and work situation during the COVID-19 crisis.
| Psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Psychological distress during COVID-19 without mentioning it as a cause Measured during COVID-19 and adjusted for pre-COVID-19 levels, age, linguistic region and participants’ experiences of the crisis a) | Psychological distress due to COVID-19, mentioning it as a cause Measured during COVID-19 only and adjusted for age, linguistic region and participants’ experiences of the crisis a) | |||||
| Depression b [95%CI] | Perceived stress b [95%CI] | Sleep Quality b [95%CI] | Psychological trauma b [95%CI] | Fear b [95%CI] | Isolation b [95%CI] | |
| Socioeconomic status before the crisis | ||||||
| Relative financial status (ref: average; n = 684) | ||||||
| below average (n = 737) | 0.12 [0.03, 0.22] | 0.15 [0.05, 0.25] | -0.01 [-0.11, 0.08] | 0.15 [0.04, 0.26] | 0.20 [0.10, 0.30] | 0.19 [0.08, 0.29] |
| above average (n = 924) | 0.10 [0.00, 0.19] | 0.00 [-0.09, 0.09] | 0.02 [-0.07, 0.12] | -0.03 [-0.13, 0.07] | -0.07 [-0.17, 0.02] | 0.08 [-0.02, 0.18] |
| Difficulty paying usual bills (ref: easy or very easy; n = 971) | ||||||
| fairly easy (n = 762) | 0.00 [-0.09, 0.08] | 0.01 [-0.08, 0.09] | -0.05 [-0.14, 0.04] | 0.11 [0.02, 0.21] | 0.14 [0.05, 0.23] | 0.04 [-0.05, 0.14] |
| rather difficult or difficult (n = 612) | 0.01 [-0.09, 0.11] | 0.13 [0.03, 0.23] | -0.10 [-0.20, 0.00] | 0.36 [0.26, 0.47] | 0.35 [0.25, 0.45] | 0.21 [0.11, 0.31] |
| Highest level of education (ref: apprenticeship (12–13 years; n = 944)) | ||||||
| compulsory schooling (9 years; n = 41) | -0.12 [-0.41, 0.17] | 0.04 [-0.25, 0.32] | 0.05 [-0.24, 0.34] | -0.01 [-0.33, 0.31] | -0.01 [-0.31, 0.29] | -0.15 [-0.46, 0.16] |
| secondary school (12–13 years; n = 221) | 0.18 [0.04, 0.31] | 0.08 [-0.05, 0.21] | -0.14 [-0.28, 0.00] | 0.09 [-0.06, 0.24] | 0.00 [-0.14, 0.14] | 0.21 [0.06, 0.35] |
| bachelor’s degree (15 years; n = 612) | 0.09 [0.00, 0.19] | -0.03 [-0.13, 0.07] | -0.05 [-0.15, 0.05] | -0.10 [-0.20, 0.01] | 0.09 [-0.01, 0.19] | 0.10 [-0.01, 0.20] |
| master’s degree (17 years; n = 527) | 0.21 [0.11, 0.32] | 0.11 [0.01, 0.22] | -0.07 [-0.18, 0.04] | -0.01 [-0.12, 0.11] | 0.04 [-0.07, 0.16] | 0.19 [0.08, 0.31] |
| Unemployment before the crisis (ref: no = 2300) | ||||||
| yes (n = 45) | 0.13 [-0.15, 0.40] | 0.08 [-0.20, 0.35] | 0.13 [-0.15, 0.41] | 0.40 [0.09, 0.71] | 0.11 [-0.19, 0.40] | 0.43 [0.13, 0.73] |
| Working in contact with potentially infected people | ||||||
| Job in healthcare sector in contact with patients (ref: no; n = 1963) | ||||||
| yes (n = 107) | 0.01 [-0.16, 0.19] | -0.04 [-0.22, 0.14] | -0.01 [-0.20, 0.17] | -0.12 [-0.32, 0.08] | -0.21 [-0.40, -0.02] | 0.00 [-0.19, 0.20] |
| Other job in contact with people (e.g. restaurant) (ref: no; n = 1534) | ||||||
| yes (n = 538) | -0.06 [-0.15, 0.03] | -0.06 [-0.15, 0.03] | 0.02 [-0.07, 0.12] | 0.02 [-0.08, 0.12] | 0.03 [-0.07, 0.12] | 0.03 [-0.07, 0.13] |
Note: Outcomes were z-standardized, and b represents differences in standard deviations with respect to the reference group. 95%CI = 95% confidence interval of b.
a) participants’ experiences of the crisis was measured in form of experience of COVID-19 symptoms, COVID-19 symptoms in entourage, changes in employment status, change in workload, call up military or civil protection unit, percentage of work at home. Coefficients in bold are significant at the p < .05 level.