Partnership Status and Changes in Depressive Symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic : A fixed effects analysis of older adults in four European countries

Sammanfattning

The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyday life and mental health across populations.Older adults were particularly vulnerable due to both the health risks of the virus andthe social restrictions introduced during the pandemic, raising concerns about increasedsocial isolation and deteriorating mental health. The aim of this study is to examine thechange in depressive symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic and toinvestigate whether partnership functioned as a protective factor against worseningmental health. In addition, the study explores whether these associations varied acrossfour European countries with differing pandemic response strategies and levels ofstringency.This study uses panel data from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe(SHARE), Waves 8 and 9, to compare depression levels among older adults before andduring the COVID-19 pandemic in four European countries: France, Germany, Italy,and Sweden. The countries were selected based on differences in pandemic stringencylevels (CHI). Depression is measured using the EURO-D scale, and fixed effectsregression models are used to analyze within-individual changes in depressivesymptoms over time. Supplementary OLS models are estimated as robustness checks.The results show that depressive symptoms increased during the pandemic across thestudy population, although the estimated effects were generally modest. Womenreported higher overall levels of depression than men, although no statisticallysignificant gender difference was observed over the study period. Contrary to the initialhypothesis, living with a partner was not associated with a smaller within-individualincrease in depressive symptoms, but partnered individuals did still report lower levelsof depressive symptoms. Country-specific analyses suggested some variation across national contexts, with Italy displaying a distinct patter, although several of the country-specific estimates were not statistically significant.