Social support and mental well-being among people with and without chronic illness during the Covid-19 pandemic: evidence from the longitudinal UCL covid survey.

PURPOSE: An immediate research priority recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic is well-being among some of our most vulnerable-people with chronic illness. We studied how mental health changed among people with and without chronic illness throughout the pandemic and the mediating role of social support. METHODS: We used the 3-waves of COVID-19 survey within the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS, age 19, N = 5522) and MCS Parent (MCSP, age > > 19, N = 7479) samples, with additional pre-pandemic measures of some outcomes and exposure. Using Structural Equation Panel Models with Full Information Maximum Likelihood estimation to address missing data, we studied differences between respondents with a chronic illness and without, regarding depressive symptoms and mental well-being, with social provision, social support, and loneliness as potential mediators. RESULTS: Mental well-being (SWEMWBS) and psychological distress (Kessler-6) worsened significantly during the pandemic relative to baseline for people with and without chronic illness, while the latter group had substantially better well-being at all waves and the baseline regarding both outcomes. When the lockdown was lifted during wave-2, mental well-being temporarily rebounded, and distress waned among people without chronic illness but continued to worsen among people with chronic illness. Social support partially mediated the link between chronic illness and mental well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The large mental well-being gap between people with and without chronic illness persisted during the pandemic. However, social support and provision can partially narrow this gap, hence should be employed in future pandemic management.

Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic to Improve the Health, Social Care, and Well-being of Minoritized Ethnic Groups With Chronic Conditions or Impairments: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has inequitably impacted the experiences of people living with ill health/impairments or from minoritized ethnic groups across all areas of life. Given possible parallels in inequities for disabled people and people from minoritized ethnic backgrounds, their existence before the pandemic and increase since, and the discriminations that each group faces, our interest is in understanding the interplay between being disabled AND being from a minoritized ethnic group. OBJECTIVE: The overarching aim of the Coronavirus Chronic Conditions and Disabilities Awareness (CICADA) project, building on this understanding, is to improve pandemic and longer-term support networks, and access to and experiences of care, services, and resources for these underserved groups, both during the pandemic and longer term, thereby reducing inequities and enhancing social, health, and well-being outcomes. METHODS: This mixed methods study involves three "sweeps" of a new UK survey; secondary analyses of existing cohort and panel surveys; a rapid scoping review; a more granular review; and qualitative insights from over 200 semistructured interviews, including social network/map/photo elicitation methods and two subsequent sets of remote participatory research workshops. Separate stakeholder cocreation meetings, running throughout the study, will develop analyses and outputs. Our longitudinal study design enables the exploration of significant relationships between variables in the survey data collected and to the assessment of changes in variables over time, including consideration of varying pandemic contexts. The qualitative data will provide more granular detail. We will take a strengths and assets-based approach, underpinned by the social model of disability and by intersectional considerations to challenge discrimination. Our exploration of the social determinants of health and well-being is framed by the social ecological model. RESULTS: The CICADA project was funded by the Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme of the United Kingdom (UK) National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in March 2021 and began in May 2021. Further work within the project (84 interviews) was commissioned in March 2022, a substudy focusing on mental health, specifically in Northeast England, Greater Manchester, and the Northwest Coast of the United Kingdom. Data collection began in August 2021, with the last participants due to be recruited in September 2022. As of January 2022, 5792 survey respondents and 227 interviewees had provided data. From April 2022, the time of article submission, we will recruit participants for the substudy and wave 2 of the surveys and qualitative work. We expect results to be published by winter 2022. CONCLUSIONS: In studying the experiences of disabled people with impairments and those living with chronic conditions who come from certain minoritized ethnic groups, we are aiming for transformative research to improve their health and well-being. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/38361.

The presence, characteristics and correlates of pathological social withdrawal in Taiwan: An online survey.

OBJECTIVES: Pathological social withdrawal (PSW) has become a public health concern, especially in Asia. However, few studies have investigated the presence of PSW and its characteristics in Taiwan. In this study, we aimed to discover whether individuals in Taiwan display PSW behaviours, the demographic characteristics and psychiatric history of those meeting criteria for PSW and the associated psychological risks. METHODS: An online self-report survey collected participants' demographic characteristics, social behaviours and their psychiatric history, along with information on adherence to cultural norms and mental health. RESULTS: Among 1,046 valid respondents, 9% reported behaviours consistent with PSW for at least 6 months, commensurate with other online surveys in Asian countries. Around 20% of these also reported current or past psychiatric disorders, although this was lower than previous findings (50%-80%). Participants with PSW reported poorer mental health and lower confidence in social/academic/work skills than unaffected participants. CONCLUSION: This study identified for the first time the presence of PSW in Taiwan. Except the lower rates of psychiatric comorbidity (which could be explained by sociocultural factors and sampling methods), data were consistent with previous findings. We also extended our understanding of possible psychological risk factors associated with this pathological condition.