A new study has shown that deterioration of mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown was significantly higher among Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) men in the UK than their white British counterparts. The findings were recently published in a working paper.
Research at the University of Exeter Business School and the University of Glasgow analysed data of 14,289 individuals from the UK Household Longitudinal Study who were interviewed in 2017-2019 and in April 2020. The participants' mental health was assessed using the 12-question General Health Questionnaire.
The findings showed that BAME men experienced a 14% deterioration in their mental health from 2017-2019 to April 2020; however, the deterioration was only 6.5% in white British men. Men of Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani heritage witnessed a 23 per cent increase in mental distress. In contrast, ethnicity had no impact on the deterioration of mental health in women.
Differences in mental health deterioration by ethnic groups remained significant even after adjusting for factors such as age, location, income, education, employment status, type of employment and family structure.
Professor Climent Quintana-Domeque, co-author of the study, said: "The COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting both the physical and mental health of individuals in BAME groups, and this can have dramatic consequences for the exacerbation of existing health and socioeconomic inequalities."
CESifo. Working paper 8449. July 2020. Full text
This article originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
