Mental Health and Covid-19


An exploration of mental health concerns in the US in the context of Covid-19

Jamie Forschmiedt, Travis Xie, Yichi Zhang

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With millions of cases and over 500,000 deaths in the United States
alone, the Covid-19 pandemic has taken an enormous toll on our
safety, and livelihoods. Moreover, the effects of the lockdowns,
job losses, and the virus itself have not been distributed equitably.
In this webpage, we explore mental health in 2020 among different
demographic groups in the context of the pandemic, while making
comparisons to 2019.

First, let's take a quick look at the cumulative Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Select a US state or territory to view cases and deaths from early 2020 to early 2021.

Now let's look at mental health. We'll start with a few overall
comparisons of differences between 2019 and 2020, then we'll do
a deeper dive into demographic differences in the prevalence
of anxiety and depressive symptoms in 2020.

Percentage of Adults with Any Mental Illness Between 2019 and 2020, by State
On average, there was a 1.2% increase in the percentage of adults who had any mental illness.
The total increase in the number of adults with any mental illness is 3,099,000.
Aggregate Comparison of Mental Health Concerns in the US, 2019 and 2020
65%.

This is the growth in the number of
youth who experienced at least one
major depressive episode (MDE) from
2019 to 2020.

Percentage of adults aged 18 and over who experienced symptoms of anxiety in 2019

Note that non-Hispanic white adults
were most likely to report any
anxiety symptoms in 2019, at
16.5%.

The pandemic has not affected everyone equally. Disproportionately
Black communities have experienced higher rates of Covid-19 cases
and deaths.1 According to the Pew Research Center, unemployment rates
during the spring of 2020 exceeded those of the Great Recession of
2007-2010, and women, immigrants, young adults, less-educated workers,
and Hispanic workers experienced a disproportionately large rise in
unemployment as a result of Covid-19.2 Our next few charts compare rates
of depression and anxiety symptoms across different demographic groups
from April 2020 to February 2021.

A Closer Look At Anxiety & Depression Symptoms in 2020: Sex

The data on anxiety and depression in these last few charts comes from the CDC Household Pulse Survey, which was conducted via online surveys. While this data was collected for the purpose of gauging the prevalence of mental health concerns during the pandemic, it is important to note that the data collection methods and response rate on this survey differed from most national surveys that the CDC conducts.

A Closer Look At Anxiety & Depression Symptoms in 2020: Race

Note that the percentages of mixed-race and Hispanic or Latino adults experiencing anxiety or depressive symptoms tend to hover above those of other races.

A Closer Look At Anxiety & Depression Symptoms in 2020: Education

Less-educated workers have disproportionately experienced unemployment as a result of Covid-19.2 Note the difference in the prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms between those with a bachelor's degree and those with less than a high school education.

Daily Covid-19 Cases and Symptoms of Anxiety & Depressive Disorders

Let's take one final look at the overall prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in the context of the counts of new Covid-19 cases. Select a portion of the top chart and brush over it to view the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms in the same time frame.

Thank you for visiting our website! We hope this project helped provide
a fuller picture of mental health in the United States during the pandemic,
in a way that is accessible to a general audience. If you have experienced
increased feelings of anxiety or depression in 2020-2021, you're not alone.
If you're interested in learning more about mental health during Covid-19,
Mental Health America is a great resource.

Demo video

Data Sources:

CDC Household Pulse Survey 2020
Mental Health America 2019 Report
Mental Health America 2020 Report
New York Times Covid-19 Data


Additional References:

1. Kochhar, R. Unemployment rose higher in three months of COVID-19 than it did in two years
of the Great Recession. Pew Research Center. 2020.
2. Millett GA, Jones AT, Benkeser D, et al. Assessing differential impacts of COVID-19 on
black communities. Ann Epidemiol. 2020;47:37-44. doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2020.05.003.


All visualizations were created using the Vega-Lite API.

This website was designed and built by
Yichi Zhang, Jamie Forschmiedt, and Travis Xie
for CSE 412: "Introduction to Data Visualization" at the University of Washington.

Huge thanks to Dr. Hoffswell and all of our amazing TAs!