The number of adults who are experiencing depression in UK has almost doubled compared with the period before the coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak, new data suggests. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 19 percent of adults experienced a few forms of depression in November.
This was the same as in June, but the rate in the month of July 2019 was just around 10 percent suggesting the pandemic has taken a significant toll on the country's mental health. Scientists discovered 17 percent of the adults witnessed a few forms of anxiety with young people affected the worst.
COVID-19 and Depression
It is possible that the real number can be higher as ONS data was based on a sample of 12,364 people aged 16 years all over the UK. A higher proportion of the younger adults, women and disabled people and those whose households were not able to afford an unexpected but necessary expense of £850 reported few forms of depression and some form of anxiety.
The ONS discovered a lower proportion of adults having depression or anxiety felt it will take six months or less for their life to return to normal, 15 percent and 16 percent respectively. But this rose to 25 percent of the people not experiencing depressive symptoms or some form of anxiety.
A previous ONS poll found 57 percent of university students felt their mental health had deteriorated after the beginning of the most recent term. Scientists found 22 percent stated that their mental health was much worse while 63 percent felt coronavirus posed a big or significant risk to their mental or physical wellbeing.
Anxiety was up across age groups during the coronavirus pandemic, but ONS discovered students were disproportionately affected with the mean scores of 5.3 on a scale of 0 to 10, compared with 4.2 in the general public. The deadly virus outbreak has infected more than 69.6 million people worldwide.
