Home confinement and mental health problems during the Covid-19 pandemic among the population aged 50 and older: A gender perspective

Patrícia Silva; Fátima Barbosa; Manuela André; Alice Delerue Matos

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100999

Home confinement and mental health problems during the Covid-19 pandemic among the population aged 50 and older: A gender perspective

SSM Popul Health. 2022 Mar:17:100999. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100999. Epub 2021 Dec 11.

Authors

Patrícia Silva^{1

2}, Fátima Barbosa¹, Manuela André³, Alice Delerue Matos^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Communication and Society Research Centre, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
² School of Education, Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, Portugal.
³ Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
⁴ Department of Sociology, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.

Abstract

Home confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic is usually associated with worsening mental health. In the case of older adults, although they have been identified as a vulnerable group in terms of mental health, the results of studies on the relationship between home confinement and mental health are not consistent and few studies have adopted a gender perspective. Using data from the SHARE Corona Survey (2020), we aimed to analyse the role of gender on the relationship between home confinement and increased depression in individuals aged 50 and over living in Europe and Israel. Our study shows that, although women reported increased depression/sadness during the Covid-19 pandemic more often than men, it was the latter who experienced the greatest increase.

Keywords: Covid-19; Gender; Home confinement; Mental health; SHARE.