COVID-19 pandemic had bigger impact on women’s health than men’s, research indicates

The COVID-19 pandemic affected women’s mental and physical health more than men’s, according to research from the University of Aberdeen.

Published in Social Science & Medicine, the study aimed to understand whether the pandemic had differing effects on the health behaviors of women and men.

The research team, led by Professor Paul McNamee from the University of Aberdeen and collaborators from Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore and the University of Turin, analyzed Understanding Society national data from January 2015 to March 2023 to compare results pre- and post-pandemic.

Researchers examined a range of health behaviors, including fruit and vegetable consumption, alcohol use and physical activity, as part of the study, as well as comparing measures of mental health. They found that on both counts, women were more negatively affected by the pandemic than their male counterparts.

The study found women reported fewer days of fruit consumption and smaller reductions in alcohol intake during the COVID pandemic.

Psychological distress increased for both women and men during the pandemic, with women experiencing a greater rise. And the link between health behaviors and mental health weakened for women during the pandemic, with a healthy lifestyle no longer showing a significant connection to mental health.

In contrast, these relationships remained consistent for men. Prior to the pandemic, health behaviors offered greater protective benefits for women’s mental health, but during the pandemic, this protective effect became stronger for men.

Professor Paul McNamee, who led the research at the University of Aberdeen, said, “We found that women reported poorer overall changes in health behaviors than men during the pandemic. Specifically, women reported fewer days of fruit consumption and smaller reductions in alcohol intake. We also found that psychological distress increased for both women and men during the pandemic, with women experiencing a greater rise.”

Dr. Karen Arulsamy from Duke-NUS Medical School said, “The adverse changes in women’s health behaviors compared to men persist through to May 2023, suggesting longer-term effects were likely worsened by financial pressures during this period. It’s important we keep tracking these trends.”

Dr. Silvia Mendolia from the University of Turin said, “Our study also shows that the pandemic considerably weakened the protective effect of health behaviors on mental health for women but not for men. For women, adopting a healthy lifestyle was strongly correlated with mental health before the pandemic, but this relationship was no longer significant during the pandemic.”

Professor McNamee concludes, “Although conducted using data before and during the pandemic, these findings still have relevance today—they suggest that at times of heightened stress, women from lower socio-economic backgrounds with caregiving responsibilities that limit their ability to maintain levels of social engagement face more challenges in engaging in healthier behaviors.

“Therefore, targeted interventions such as social prescribing, accessible through referral from primary care providers and other voluntary agencies, could be made more widely available.”