A new survey conducted during the pandemic by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University found a more-than-threefold increase in the percentage of U.S. adults who reported symptoms of psychological distress—from 3.9 percent in 2018 to 13.6 percent in April 2020.
A new survey conducted during the pandemic by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University found a more-than-threefold increase in the percentage of U.S. adults who reported symptoms of psychological distress—from 3.9 percent in 2018 to 13.6 percent in April 2020. The percentage of adults ages 18–29 in the U.S. who reported psychological distress increased from 3.7 percent in 2018 to 24 percent in 2020.
The survey, fielded online April 7 to April 13, found that 19.3 percent of adults with annual household incomes less than $35,000 reported psychological distress in 2020 compared to 7.9 percent in 2018, an increase of 11.4 percentage points. Nearly one-fifth, or 18.3 percent, of Hispanic adults reported psychological distress in 2020 compared to 4.4 percent in 2018, a more than four-fold increase of 13.9 percentage points. The researchers also found that psychological distress in adults age 55 and older almost doubled from 3.8 percent in 2018 to 7.3 percent in 2020.
The survey found only a slight increase in feelings of loneliness, from 11 percent in 2018 to 13.8 percent in 2020, suggesting that loneliness is not driving increased psychological distress.
The findings were published online June 3 in a research letter in JAMA.
Read more at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
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