OSU study finds high levels of depression and anxiety among disabled people during COVID
By Web staff
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CORVALLIS, Oregon (KPTV) — A new study from Oregon State University found that people with disabilities, both mental and physical, have been experiencing higher levels of depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The main reason for the heightened levels is social isolation, according to Kathleen Bogart, co-author of the study and an Associate Professor of Psychology at OSU.
“We know that people with disabilities were more socially isolated before the pandemic, so for a variety of reasons, the pandemic has amplified that disparity,” she said.
People with disabilities are often immunocompromised or have other health issues that could make contracting COVID-19 much more severe. Therefore, they require strict self-isolation.
With COVID-19 and strict isolation, it became harder for people with disabilities to access their healthcare providers or receive any medical attention that was not urgent such as physical therapy or even surgery. This, in turn, often made their condition worse.
Stigma also made it difficult for people with disabilities to access things like ventilators or COVID tests in the early days of the pandemic when resources were limited. Instead, the priority was given to patients who were more likely to have a good “quality of life” after COVID, said Bogart.
The study, published in Rehabilitation Psychology, looks at survey responses from 441 adults between October and December 2020 who self-identified as having a disability. In total, 61% of participants met the criteria for probable major depressive disorder and 50% for probable generalized anxiety disorder.
That’s much higher than the pre-pandemic baseline among people with and without disabilities according to Bogart .
Yet, Bogart also sees hope in the study’s findings. Technology has allowed disability organizations to organize virtual events that are accessible to more people.
“We know that social support is really beneficial; what’s interesting is perceived isolation or perceived social support is much more important than the actual concrete number of friends in your social network,” she said. “It’s all about whether someone perceives their support to be adequate.”
And within telehealth, Bogart said health care systems can improve accessibility by providing automatic captioning for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, providing sign language interpreters and making platforms that blind patients can navigate, as well.
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