Pandemic negatively impacted sleep, depression, alcohol use in caregivers, non-caregivers
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted caregivers and non-caregivers alike, with evidence of increased alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms along with significant sleep disturbances, according to a study published in Alcohol.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is deeply impacting social structures and behavioral patterns across the globe,” Ashley M. Strzelecki, of the department of psychology at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, and colleagues wrote. “Abrupt changes and substantial restrictions placed on individuals’ routines could have considerable negative influences on health and health behaviors.”
Strzelecki and fellow researchers sought to examine the negative effects the pandemic imposed on caregivers and non-caregivers, particularly on health and health behaviors including alcohol consumption, sleep disruptions and increased depressive symptoms.
Prospective participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire regarding alcohol use, sleep issues and depression during a June to August 2020 pandemic interval. From an initial cohort of 939 respondents who opened the survey, and 733 participants who completed at least one measure, 320 individuals (mean age, 35.11 years) aged 21 to 45 years completed the survey, and then retrospectively assessed the same health behaviors in the months prior to the pandemic.
The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) was used to assess levels of alcohol consumption by evaluating drinking status, quantity of drinking and frequency of drinking, where a score of zero indicated no alcohol use and higher scores indicated more drinking, with scores of four and above for men and three and above for women, which indicated hazardous drinking.
Sleep quality was measured with the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a 10-question evaluation that assessed sleep quality before and during COVID-19. Questions were scored to produce seven subscale scores, each ranging from zero (no difficulty) to three (severe difficulty). The sum of seven component scores produced the global PSQ score from zero to 21, with higher scores indicating worse sleep quality.
Depressive symptoms were assessed with the 10-question self-report Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised (CESD-R-10). The sum of all 10 questions produced a total score from 0 to 30, where higher scores indicated more depression symptoms. Scores greater than or equal to 10 suggest clinically significant depression.
Results showed that insomnia severity increased, sleep quality decreased and depressive symptoms increased for both caregivers and non-caregivers during the pandemic. By contrast, alcohol consumption increased among caregivers only. Further, increased alcohol use was associated with decreased sleep quality and increased insomnia symptoms among caregivers, but not non-caregivers.
“Additional research is needed to understand the long-term impacts of the pandemic on alcohol use, sleep and depression in this population and to determine whether the retrospective changes reported here continue to impact health behaviors in the coming years,” Strzelecki and colleagues wrote.