Mental Health Made Worse in Pandemic by Class And Poverty

London: Depression has soared during the pandemic—and if you’re poorer, younger, female or disabled you’re much more likely to have been affected. A report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week looked at depression among adults in Britain in the first quarter of the year. It revealed starkly how money and class shape the quality of people’s lives.

One in five adults, 21 percent, suffered some form of depression between January and March this year. That’s more than double the 10 percent figure before the pandemic. It’s also an increase from November, when the figure was 19 percent. A series of measures show that poorer people are much more likely to suffer depression than the rich.

Symptoms: Working age adults whose gross income is under £10,000 a year had the highest rates of depressive ­symptoms of all income groups. Some 37 percent, or nearly four in ten, had suffered depression early this year. The figure for those ­earning £50,000 a year or more was one in ten. Around 28 percent of adults living in the poorest areas of England suffer depressive symptoms—while 17 ­percent of those in the richest do.

Read more: Sadie Robinson, https://is.gd/aSfA8P