Women and young people ‘hit most by lockdown’ as MPs told coronavirus could last decades
A study has suggested women and young people have been hardest hit psychologically by the coronavirus lockdown, as MPs were told the world will be living with Covid-19 for "decades to come".
A new study found 27% of people in the UK were experiencing clinically significant levels of psychological distress in April - compared with 19% before the pandemic.
A General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) assessing the severity of a mental health problem over the previous few weeks also showed increasing distress across the population in April.
The 12 questions included how often people experienced symptoms such as difficulties sleeping or concentrating, problems with decision-making or feeling overwhelmed.
Increases were bigger in some groups compared to others according to the study published in The Lancet Psychiatry. It found:
A 33% rise among women
32% rise among parents with children under five
and a 37% rise among young people aged 18 to 24
Sally McManus, joint senior author of the study from City University, said: "The pandemic has brought people’s differing life circumstances into stark contrast.
"We found that, overall, pre-existing inequalities in mental health for women and young people have widened.
"At the same time, new inequalities have emerged, such as for those living with pre-school children."
Data from the Office of National Statistics on homeschooling during the Covid-19 pandemic is due to be released on Wednesday.
Research on how parents in Great Britain have managed working from home in addition to their parenting responsibilities is also set to be released by the agency.
It comes as the Health and Social Care Committee on Tuesday were warned coronavirus will be here "for very many, many years to come".
Wellcome Trust director and Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) member Professor Sir Jeremy Farrar told MPs: "Things will not be done by Christmas. This infection is not going away, it’s now a human endemic infection.
"Even, actually, if we have a vaccine or very good treatments, humanity will still be living with this virus for very many, many years to come."
Prof Farrar also criticised the timing of the lockdown, saying: "I believe lockdown was too late, I believe lockdown should have come in earlier."
MPs heard evidence from chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty too who defended his actions over the pandemic, saying lockdown came at about the right time.
Prof Whitty also told MPs that widespread community testing earlier on in the pandemic required “an infrastructure we did not have”.
He told committee chair and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt that Sage had consistently said that more testing capacity was needed.
But he agreed that, given the capacity, it was the correct advice to stop widespread community testing on March 12.
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