Psychological distress and well-being among sensory impaired individuals during COVID-19 lockdown measures

Purpose: Hearing and vision impairment are prevalent chronic conditions associated with poorer mental health. Limitations of in-person contacts during COVID-19-related lockdown measures may affect those with sensory impairments more severely exacerbating mental health problems. We aimed to determine whether hearing and/or visual impairment were associated with more psychological distress during a time of lockdown measures in Spring/Summer 2020 in Wisconsin.Methods: We included 1341(64% women, aged 20-92 years) Survey of the Health of Wisconsin COVID-19 survey participants (May 2020-July,2020). We assessed self-reported current mental health and well-being and vision and hearing impairment. Logistic regression models with sensory impairments as de-terminants and mental health outcomes were adjusted for age, gender, race, education, heart disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes.Results: Vision impairment was associated with increased odds of generalized anxiety disorder (odds ratio = 2.10; 95% confidence interval = 1.32-3.29) and depressive symptoms (2.57;1.58-4.11), greater likelihood to report loneliness (1.65;1.00-2.64) and hopelessness (1.45;1.01-2.08). Hearing impaired in-dividuals reported more loneliness (1.80;1.05-2.98) and hopelessness (1.42;0.99-2.03). Exploratory anal-yses revealed that sensory impaired individuals less often chose walking as a coping strategy during the pandemic.Conclusions: Individuals with sensory impairment may represent a particularly vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should determine underlying reasons and interventions to mitigate this populations' disadvantages.(c) 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study aimed to investigate whether hearing and vision impairment were associated with increased psychological distress during the COVID-19 lockdown measures in Wisconsin in Spring/Summer 2020. The results showed that vision impairment was associated with increased generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and hopelessness. Hearing impairment was associated with increased loneliness and hopelessness. These findings suggest that individuals with sensory impairment may be particularly vulnerable to mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic.