Societal movement restrictions and adverse mental health outcomes

Abstract

Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments struggled to find the right balance between re-strictive measures to contain the spread of the virus, and the effects of these measures on people’s psychological wellbeing. This paper investigates the relationship between limitations to mobility and mental health for the UK population during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a unique combination of high-frequency mobility data from Google and longitudinal monthly survey data collected during the pandemic. We find a strong and robust correlation between high-frequency mobility data and established low-frequency mental health survey data. We show that increased residential stationarity predicts a mental wellbeing deterioration even when we control for regional COVID-19 prevalence and lockdown stringency. We uncover heterogeneity in this relationship. Particularly high levels of distress are seen in young, healthy people living alone with an active working life. Women also suffer more from mobility restrictions than men, especially if they have young children.