Information-seeking, mental health and loneliness: Longitudinal analyses of adults in the UK COVID-19 Mental Health & Wellbeing study

BackgroundAs part of the COVID-19 pandemic, a huge amount of information has been shared to keep people informed about health-related and other topics. While information-seeking has generally been seen as an adaptive response to the pandemic, it can result in negative outcomes including on mental health. The present study reports longitudinal data from the UK COVID-19 Mental Health and Wellbeing study and tests whether reporting COVID-related information-seeking is associated with subsequently poorer mental health outcomes.MethodA quota-based sampling methodology was used in order to recruit a nationally representative sample. COVID-related information-seeking was assessed via questionnaire at six waves between March and November 2020 along with symptoms of depression, anxiety, mental wellbeing and loneliness (N = 1939). Hierarchical linear modelling was used to assess the relationship between COVID-related information-seeking and mental health and loneliness scores.Results Information-seeking was found to reduce over time. Overall, women, older and higher socioeconomic group individuals reported higher levels of information-seeking. At waves 1-4 (March-June 2020) the majority of participants reported that they sought information on Covid 1-5 times per day, this decreased to less than once per day in waves 5 and 6 (July-November 2020). Higher levels of information-seeking were associated with poorer mental health outcomes, particularly clinically significant levels of anxiety and poor wellbeing. ConclusionA high-level of information-seeking behaviour was associated with poorer mental health outcomes, particularly symptoms of anxiety. Reducing or managing information-seeking behaviour may be one method to reduce anxiety during pandemics and other public health crises.