Abstract
Background: At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, media consumption rose dramatically as
people worked to stay informed and connected during lockdowns. However, though media may have
provided respite from social isolation, previous research links media consumption with worse mental
health outcomes. Therefore, our objective was to examine whether non-social (e.g. television news,
radio) and social media consumption during COVID-19 impacted anxiety and depression symptoms
relative to before the pandemic onset.
Methods: We conducted an anonymous, cross sectional survey in May-June 2020. Participants
(n=1,168, 73.2 years, 56.8% women, 94.9% white) were asked to estimate their time spent consuming
pandemic related media and to report on anxiety and depressive symptoms before and after the
pandemic began. We calculated change scores for anxiety and depression by summing scores from
individual items asking about change during the pandemic.
Results: Respondents with high pandemic related media consumption (>3 hrs) were more likely to
have increased anxiety symptoms compared to those with low (<1 hr) media consumption (OR:1.57,
95% CI:1.09-2.23). Similarly, respondents with increased social media consumption during the
pandemic were 64% more likely to report depressive symptoms than those who did not use social
media. Interestingly, those who reduced their social media use were 45% less likely to have depressive
symptoms and 26% less likely to have anxiety symptoms than those who never used social media.
Conclusion: Older adults consuming more pandemic related media had increased anxiety symptoms
compared to those with less consumption. Increased social media consumption was associated with
elevated depressive symptoms. The potential benefits of media consumption may be countered by
unintended negative consequences on mental health; future research should provide recommendations
for optimizing media consumption.
Users
Please
log in to take part in the discussion (add own reviews or comments).