The covid-19 pandemic affected mental health in the UK. Timely data.
Gaston Yalonetzky, Associate Professor of Economics at the Leeds University Business School, discusses the vital role data plays when looking at the impact of covid-19 on mental health in the UK.
We can make all sorts of reasonably sounding claims about the economy or society, over a discussion at the pub or the dinner table. Some of them may even have profound policy implications. But middle east rcs data it is another thing to find for or against them with empirical evidence. And for that we need appropriate data.
For instance, most people will probably think that the covid-19 pandemic, particularly the first lockdown period, had detrimental mental health effects in the UK. For some, this judgment may even reflect personal experience. But how can we know for sure whether this mental effect was significant and widespread, as opposed to being anecdotal at best, perhaps? Thankfully, the United Kingdom’s Longitudinal Household Survey (UKLHS, aka “Understanding Society”) has been asking people questions on mental health every year for decades now. Moreover, the Institute for Social and Economic Research in charge of the UKLHS, undertook the momentous collection of a special survey during the first months of the pandemic. Thus, we have information on British survey participants before and after the first lockdown was implemented in late March 2020.