The impact of shielding during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health: Evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, older and clinically vulnerable people were instructed to shield or stay at home. Policies restricting social contact and human interaction pose a risk to mental health, but we know very little about the impact of shielding and stay-at-home orders on the mental health of older people.

AIMS: To understand the extent to which shielding contributes to poorer mental health.

METHOD: We used longitudinal data from wave 9 (2018/2019) and two COVID-19 sub-studies (June/July 2020; November/December 2020) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, and constructed logistic and linear regression models to investigate associations between patterns of shielding during the pandemic and mental health, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, pre-pandemic physical and mental health, and social isolation measures.

RESULTS: By December 2020, 70% of older people were still shielding or staying at home, with 5% shielding throughout the first 9 months of the pandemic. Respondents who shielded experienced worse mental health. Although prior characteristics and lack of social interactions explain some of this association, even controlling for all covariates, those shielding throughout had higher odds of reporting elevated depressive symptoms (odds ratio 1.87, 95% CI 1.22-2.87) and lower quality of life (β = -1.28, 95% CI -2.04 to -0.52) than those who neither shielded nor stayed at home. Shielding was also associated with increased anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS: Shielding seems associated with worse mental health among older people, highlighting the need for policy makers to address the mental health needs of those who shielded, both in the current pandemic and for the future.