The association between daily life changes and anxiety among Ukrainians following the Russian invasion

Yafit Levin; Rahel Bachem; Philip Hyland; Frédérique Vallières; Mark Shevlin; Thanos Karatzias; Eoin McElroy; Maria Louison Vang; Boris Lorberg; Menachem Ben-Ezra; Dmytro Martsenkovskyi

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115530

The association between daily life changes and anxiety among Ukrainians following the Russian invasion

Psychiatry Res. 2023 Nov:329:115530. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115530. Epub 2023 Oct 6.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Education and School of Social Work, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel. Electronic address: yafitl@ariel.ac.il.
² Psychopathology and Clinical Intervention, Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: r.bachem@psychologie.uzh.ch.
³ Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, Kildare, Ireland. Electronic address: Philip.hyland@mu.ie.
⁴ Trinity Centre for Global Health, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Electronic address: fvallier@tcd.ie.
⁵ School of Psychology, Ulster University, Derry, Northern Ireland. Electronic address: m.shevlin@ulster.ac.uk.
⁶ School of Health & Social Care, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland. Electronic address: t.karatzias@naier.ac.uk.
⁷ School of Psychology, Ulster University, Derry, Northern Ireland. Electronic address: e.mcelroy@ulster.ac.uk.
⁸ Centre for Psychotraumatology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. Electronic address: mlvang@health.sdu.dk.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry, UMass Chan Medical School, Massachusetts, United States. Electronic address: boris.lorberg@umassmed.edu.
¹⁰ School of Social Work, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel. Electronic address: menbe@ariel.ac.il.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry and Narcology, Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine; SI "Institute of Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatric Examination and Drug Monitoring of Ministry of Health of Ukraine", Kyiv, Ukraine. Electronic address: d.martsenkovskyi@gmail.com.

PMID: 37837809
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115530

Abstract

This study sought to explore the association between changes in daily life and war-related anxiety. In this study, we analyzed self-reported data from 2,004 Ukrainian adults, obtained through an opportunistic survey in the Ukraine. Our assessment focused on changes in everyday routines and generalized anxiety symptoms since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the 24 February 2022. The data were collected between July-September 2022. Results show a significant dose-response connection between everyday routine changes and increased war-related anxiety. Not surprisingly, the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict is impacting the lives of Ukrainians. These changes are linked to heightened anxiety levels. Effective population-based crisis management should consider both war-related stressors and changes in daily life routines.

Keywords: Anxiety; Daily Life Change; Ukraine; War.

MeSH terms

Adult
Anxiety Disorders* / epidemiology
Anxiety* / epidemiology
Ethnicity
Humans
Quality of Life
Russia / epidemiology