How Has COVID Affected Mental Health and Alcohol Use? – New Survey Findings

Our Survey Demographic Data

We surveyed 508 self-selecting respondents using Amazon Mechanical Turk system. The only qualifiers for these respondents were that they were located in the U.S. and had a high completion rate in the mTurk system. There was no pre-survey or attempt to create a representative audience. Below is the demographic breakdown for our 508 respondents…

Sex: Female (39%), Male (60%)
Age: 18-25 (17%), 26-35 (45%), 36-45 (22%), 45+ (16%)
Household: Single (29%), Single w/ Roommate(s) (8%), Live with Partner (36%), Live with Partner and dependents/others (26%)

Work Affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic

• 58% of respondents have had their primary source of employment affected by the events COVID-19.
• 42% have lost work hours due to the pandemic/pandemic response.
• 76% of our respondents said they have a job in which they do most of their work “from home.”
• 65% who now stay at home for work said this was related to COVID-19.
• 19% have filed (or attempted to file) for unemployment since 2020.
• Self-reporting on their productivity, 27% report they are more productive at home, 33% not as productive and 38% say they are just as productive at home.

Spending Stimulus Money

• Only 38% of respondents said they had received their stimulus money. 41% reported that they “won’t be receiving” stimulus money. 20% had not yet received it but expected to.
• Given the option to check what they’ve spent their stimulus money on, respondents reported they spent it on:
  • Non-essentials (56%)
  • Alcohol (30%)
  • “Haven’t yet spent” (12%)
  • Marijuana (8%)
  • ‘On Essentials’ (7%).

Quarantine and Alcohol

• 75.8% report that they stockpiled alcohol in preparation for quarantine.
• Responding to this statement, “I find myself drinking because I’m bored,” 40% selected ‘True.”
• Prior to COVID19 and Since, How often would you say you drank?
  

  	Didn’t / Don’t	Monthly	Weekly	Almost Daily	Daily
  Prior	32%	37%	25%	4%	1%
  Since	36%	30%	23%	8%	2%

• If you are, what are you drinking mostly?
  • Beer (29%)
  • Hard Seltzer (2.8%)
  • Mixed Drinks (9%)
  • Wine (19%)
  • I don’t care (3.5%)
  • Not Drinking (36%)
• 17.9% report that they are working from home and have drank during ‘work hours’.

Substance Use During Quarantine

• Reporting on their substance use:
  • 10.9% report their drug use has decreased since COVID-19
  • 4.7% report an increase
  • 14.3% report it is the same
• Reporting on their concern about their substance use:
  • 65% are not concerned
  • 11% say it’s not a problem
  • 2% report it’s a bit of a problem but under control
  • 21% say it’s a form of self-medicating
• 19% report they have been high or a non-prescription drug during work hours.

Mental Health and Quarantine

• How would you rate your mental health prior to and since the events of COVID-19
  

  	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
  Since	1.4%	.6%	3.2%	7.1%	11.3%	11%	11.5%	20.5%	17%	16.4%
  Prior	2%	2.7%	5%	9.5%	12%	13.6%	18%	15%	11.5%	10%

• 20% of respondents reported they knew someone who had passed away due to the events of COVID-19
• When asked how people have been handling stress, respondents are employing these tactics:
  • 64% Exercising
  • 46% Reading
  • 45% Staying Busy
  • 42% Binge watching TV
  • 24% Meditation
  • 17% Avoiding News
  • 17% Self-medicating
  • 15% Oversleeping
  • 11% Drinking
• Respondents reported experiencing the following issues that they attribute to COVID-19:
  • 46% Anxiety
  • 44% Isolation From Social Distancing
  • 32% Loneliness
  • 27% Depression
  • 8% Grief/Loss
  • 8% Existentialism
  • 5% Manic Episodes
  • 5% Substance Use
  • 4% Hypochondria
• Reporting on teletherapy, 28% say they don’t use it but believe it would help. 65% are not interested. 7% report they do use teletherapy.
• In regards to delaying seeking care for physical or mental health care…
  • 67% say this is not the case
  • 10.3% say they’ve avoided seeking mental health services for care
  • 14.3% say they’ve avoided seeking physical health care
  • 8% say they’ve avoided seeking care for both

Methods:

Using survey platform Mechanical Turk, we had 508 unique users complete a 30 point questionnaire. The participants from this group were not in any way weighted or modified to correct for a standard demographic. A select few results were removed from the initial dataset due to unrealistic completion time. If you have any questions about our survey or would like to re-use any survey data please let us know and cite our original study. Feel free to share this article and our results!