How did people experience their everyday lives during the first Corona lockdown? In a multinational study, psychologists at the University of Vienna showed that the factors of age, financial security and loneliness had a major influence on individual well-being throughout the day. In particular, younger people and people with less financial security showed persistently higher stress levels towards the evening. In addition, people who reported high levels of loneliness had altered mood patterns in everyday life. The study was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Physical distancing, home office, curfew

The corona pandemic has noticeably influenced our everyday lives over the last two years. The multidisciplinary research team of six young scientists, together with the study leaders Claus Lamm, Urs Nater and Giorgia Silani from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Vienna, used an app to study over 700 people from Austria, Germany and Italy as part of a large-scale, multinational study accompanied in their everyday lives during the first lockdown.

The participants answered questions on their smartphones several times a day for a week about their current stress levels and their mood. “These feelings typically change depending on the time of day, with increased stress and energy during the day and a decline in the evening, whereas feelings of relaxation tend to increase in the evening. “The analysis of everyday data from the first lockdown shows different stress and mood patterns in everyday life depending on certain personal risk factors,” says Claus Lamm.

On behalf of the young scientists, Anja Feneberg summarizes the results as follows:

“Younger people reported experiencing higher levels of stress in everyday life, especially in the evening hours, while older people showed the typical decrease in stress levels. Even when financial security was low, a similar pattern emerged with higher stress levels in the evening hours.”

There were also gender-related differences

Although men had higher levels of stress in everyday life than women, women reported more loss of energy and fatigue throughout the day.

Further conclusion from the scientists:

The greater the perceived loneliness, the worse the mood in everyday life. What was particularly noticeable was less energy in the morning and low moods in the evening, compared to people who reported less loneliness.

Measurable reduction in the stress hormone cortisol in the hair

Some of the Austrian participants also sent hair samples to the research team. The stress hormone cortisol is deposited in the hair. Analysis of the hair samples indicated a downregulation of cortisol production during the lockdown. A closer look at the hair cortisol levels only showed an increase in hair cortisol in a smaller percentage of participants. Giorgia Silani interprets the results as follows:

“This could potentially indicate that most study participants suffered from fewer everyday stressors during the first lockdown than before, whereas only certain groups of people responded to the lockdown measures with an endocrine stress response. This is consistent with previous literature, which, for example, demonstrated cortisol increases in groups of people particularly challenged by the pandemic, such as healthcare workers.”

Contextualization of health-promoting interventions necessary

The findings of the study provide important information for the development of individualized and context-sensitive everyday interventions. The researchers are part of the research platform SOLE (The Stress of Life - Processes and Mechanisms of Everyday Life Stress), which, in addition to identifying stress mechanisms in everyday life, also aims to develop personalized interventions to reduce stress. “We were able to show that younger people had comparatively high stress levels, especially in the evening.

This is exactly when personalized interventions could be beneficial. Something similar would also be conceivable for lonely people who could benefit from support in seeking out positive social interactions, especially in the evening. By using mobile technologies in everyday life, our next step is to offer interventions in particularly stressful situations to those groups of people when they are most likely to be needed,” concludes Urs Nater.

Original publication: Publication in “Proceedings of the Royal Society B”:
Feneberg, AC, Forbes, PAG, Piperno, G, Pronizius, E., Stijovic, A., Skoluda, N., Lamm, C., Nater, UM, Silani , G. (2022).
Diurnal dynamics of stress and mood during COVID-19 lockdown: a large multinational ecological momentary assessment study. Proc. R. Soc. B 20212480. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2480

Source: Gesundheitportal.de

Related to the topic: Psychological stress and stress factors in vaccinated and unvaccinated people


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