TY - JOUR T1 - Comparing population-level mental health of UK workers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal study using Understanding Society JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 527 LP - 536 DO - 10.1136/jech-2021-218561 VL - 76 IS - 6 AU - Theocharis Kromydas AU - Michael Green AU - Peter Craig AU - Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi AU - Alastair H Leyland AU - Claire L Niedzwiedz AU - Anna Pearce AU - Rachel M Thomson AU - Evangelia Demou Y1 - 2022/06/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/76/6/527.abstract N2 - Objectives The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially affected workers’ mental health. We investigated changes in UK workers’ mental health by industry, socioeconomic class and occupation and differential effects by UK country of residence, gender and age.Methods We used representative Understanding Society data from 6474 adults (41 207 observations) in paid employment who participated in pre-pandemic (2017–2020) and at least one COVID-19 survey. The outcome was General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) caseness (score: ≥4). Exposures were industry, socioeconomic class and occupation and are examined separately. Mixed-effects logistic regression was used to estimate relative (OR) and absolute (%) increases in distress before and during pandemic. Differential effects were investigated for UK countries of residence (non-England/England), gender (male/female) and age (younger/older) using three-way interaction effects.Results GHQ-12 caseness increased in relative terms most for ‘professional, scientific and technical’ (OR: 3.15, 95% CI 2.17 to 4.59) industry in the pandemic versus pre-pandemic period. Absolute risk increased most in ‘hospitality’ (+11.4%). For socioeconomic class, ‘small employers/self-employed’ were most affected in relative and absolute terms (OR: 3.24, 95% CI 2.28 to 4.63; +10.3%). Across occupations, ‘sales and customer service’ (OR: 3.01, 95% CI 1.61 to 5.62; +10.7%) had the greatest increase. Analysis with three-way interactions showed considerable gender differences, while for UK country of residence and age results are mixed.Conclusions GHQ-12 caseness increases during the pandemic were concentrated among ‘professional and technical’ and ‘hospitality’ industries and ‘small employers/self-employed’ and ‘sales and customers service’ workers. Female workers often exhibited greater differences in risk by industry and occupation. Policies supporting these industries and groups are needed.Data are available in a public, open access repository. Understanding Society (Usoc) data are available through the UK Data Service. Researchers who would like to use Usoc need to register with the UK Data Service before being allowed to apply for or download datasets (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/access-data). ER -