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Housing and youth mental health during a COVID-19 lockdown

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

J. Groot ,
A. Keller ,
A. Joensen ,
T.-L. Nguyen ,
A.-M. Nybo Andersen  and
K. Strandberg-Larsen
J. Groot*
Affiliation:
Department Of Public Health, University of Denmark, Copenhagen K, Denmark
A. Keller
Affiliation:
Department Of Public Health, University of Denmark, Copenhagen K, Denmark
A. Joensen
Affiliation:
Department Of Public Health, University of Denmark, Copenhagen K, Denmark
T.-L. Nguyen
Affiliation:
Department Of Public Health, University of Denmark, Copenhagen K, Denmark
A.-M. Nybo Andersen
Affiliation:
Department Of Public Health, University of Denmark, Copenhagen K, Denmark
K. Strandberg-Larsen
Affiliation:
Section Of Epidemiology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Declines in mental health among youth in the COVID-19 pandemic have been observed, yet longitudinal studies on how housing may impact these declines are lacking.

Objectives

Our aim was to determine whether changes in mental health among Danish youth were dependent on their housing conditions.

Methods

Young participants from the Danish National Birth Cohort, who had responded to an online questionnaire at 18 years of age, and later during the initial national Danish lockdown, were included. Associations between housing conditions (direct access to outdoor spaces, urbanicity, household density, and household composition) and changes in mental health (mental well-being, quality of life (QoL) and loneliness) were examined in multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses.

Results

We included 7455 participants. Greater decreases in mental well-being were observed for youth with no access to direct outdoor spaces and those living in denser households (mean difference -0.83 [95 % CI -1.19, -0.48], -0.30 [-0.43, -0.18], respectively). Onset of low mental well-being was associated with no access and living alone (odds ratios (OR) 1.68 [1.15, 2.47] and OR 1.47 [1.05, 2.07], respectively). Household density was negatively associated with QoL (mean difference -0.21 [-0.30, -0.12]). Youth living alone experienced more loneliness (OR 2.12 [95 % CI 1.59, 2.82]).

Conclusions

How youth’s mental health changed from before to during lockdown was associated with housing conditions. Among the Danish youth in our study, greater decreases in mental health during lockdown were observed among youth without access to outdoor spaces, living alone, or living in denser households.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

public healthmental healthCOVID-19housing
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S732
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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