Predictors of mood change during COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: a web-based survey study

Introduction: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a national lockdown was imposed in Italy, which dramatically changed the habits of the population with consequences on their mental wellbeing. This study aimed to assess whether the individual context of the confinement—including the home and family setup, work and health conditions, and lifestyle—impacted the general mood during the lockdown. Materials and methods: A questionnaire about lifestyle and health before and during the lockdown was distributed via social networks to the adult population living in Italy at the beginning of May 2020. A question about the change in the overall mood during the lockdown—if it worsened, improved, or remained about the same—was adopted as a proxy of the variation in the participants’ mental wellbeing. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to estimate the associations between participants’ characteristics with their mood change. Results: A total of 2134 subjects voluntarily filled-in the questionnaire; 46% reported mood-worsening during the lockdown, and 13% reported an improvement. Female sex, younger age, and having young children at home were significantly associated with mood-worsening; in men, mood-worsening was also associated with living with parents, having completely stopped working because of the emergency, and having a history of anxiety or depression. Vice versa, having a house with a garden, dogs (but not cats), and having done regular physical activity significantly protected from mood-worsening. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that some specific individual characteristics may negatively affect mental wellbeing during the lockdown, while others can mitigate the psychological stress of the confinement.