Study shows greater increase in depression and anxiety in minorities during the pandemic

While the mental health of many Americans worsened during the pandemic, a recent UAB study found that the rise in symptoms of depression and anxiety was greater in black, Hispanic and Asian communities.In 2020, the United States saw increases in both hospitalizations and unemployment rates due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the lingering unknowns of a pandemic, there has also been an increase in the number of Americans experiencing depression or anxiety. However, researchers at University of Alabama at Birmingham show that these rates were most prevalent in the black, Hispanic, and Asian communities.

The study results showed that in the first year of the pandemic, April 2020-April 2021, the prevalence of people with symptoms of depression or anxiety in the United States increased substantially, from about 11% of people in 2019 to about of 40%.

Mieke Beth Thomeer, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of Arts and Sciences‘ Department of Sociologyand Miles Moody, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, found in their study, Racial and ethnic disparities in mental health and mental health care during the COVID-19 pandemicthat the increase was more pronounced for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians in the United States.

“Comparing 2019 with April-May 2020, the odds of depression and anxiety were 218% higher for white people, 280% higher for black people, 344% higher for Hispanic people, and 560% higher for black people. higher for Asian people,” Thomeer said. “What this means is that, in the early months of the pandemic, black and Hispanic people had worse mental health outcomes compared to white people.”

According to Thomeer, there was significance to the timing of the spikes in mental health problems for both the African-American and Asian-American participants.

“We found that black people in the study were the only racial/ethnic group who experienced a higher likelihood of depression or anxiety in the period from May 28 to June 2, 2020, around the time of George Floyd’s murder,” he said. . saying.

Mieke Beth Thomeer, Ph.D.The researchers also found that Asian Americans in the study were the only racial/ethnic group that experienced the highest likelihood in the period March 17-29, 2021, around the time of the murder of six Asian American women in Atlanta. .

In addition to the increases, the study results showed that although these groups experienced the greatest increase in mental health problems, they demonstrated higher levels of unmet mental health care needs during the pandemic, compared to white participants.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had and continues to have devastating consequences globally, including decreased economic stability, increased loneliness and social isolation, and the death of loved ones,” Thomeer said. “It is important to recognize that these consequences were experienced unevenly and were especially pronounced for people of racial and ethnic minorities.”

Thomeer hopes that the findings of this study can be used to raise awareness of the mental health burden due to the pandemic and improve the affordability and accessibility of services to help the long-term mental health crisis in the United States.