Major grant for study of mental health among high-risk groups in COVID-19
A research team led by Unnur Anna Valdimarsdóttir, professor of public health sciences at the University of Iceland, has received a grant of around 150 million Icelandic krona from NordForsk, an organisation under the Nordic Council of Ministers, for a study connected to the impact of the corona pandemic on mental health in the four Nordic countries and Estonia.
The study is one of five Nordic research projects connected to the pandemic that receive a grant at this time. The projects will take advantage of the Nordic countries’ unique health data to advance the knowledge base about COVID-19 for the benefit of the Nordic region and the entire world. The Nordic countries are thus jointly strengthening research cooperation on COVID-19 to prepare for future pandemics.
The five new research projects will study COVID-19 in relation to everything from pregnancy progression to smoking to mental health vulnerability; each receiving a grant for 10 million Norwegian crown, or approximately 150 million Icelandic ones.
The study Unnur and her collaborators are conducting is called Mental morbidity trajectories in COVID-19 across risk populations of five nations. It is meant to answer the call of WHO and the scientific community for more literature and research on the mental health impact of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic has already had an unprecedented influence on the global economy and population health and it is considered important to examine the long-term effect it can have on mental health.
The study will address the following specific aims:
- The role of pre-existing psychiatric disorders in subsequent risk and progression of a COVID-19 infection.
- The impact of COVID-19 on short and long-term psychiatric sequel among COVID-19 patients, their families and front-line workers.
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on population mental health by the varying mitigating responses, and corresponding COVID-19 related mortality rates across 4 Nordic countries and Estonia.
The study will use all of the five participating countries' databases, including national registry resources. Furthermore, data from ongoing research on mental health here in Iceland will also be used, but Unnur and her collaborators at the University of Iceland, the Directorate of Health and Chief Epidemiologist, and the Landspítali University Hospital are conducting the study COVID-19 National Resilience Cohort (Líðan þjóðar á tímum COVID-19). They are investigating the impact of the pandemic on stress-related symptoms, psychological health and lifestyles among people in Iceland, but also to explore whether a history of disease or other risk factors, or potential or confirmed COVID-19 infection, are linked to poorer well-being and lower quality of life.
They hope this research programme will offer novel insights into the role of psychiatric factors in COVID-19 ethology and health consequences and at the same time offer a knowledgebase of legitimate relevance for the Nordic-Baltic countries and beyond.
In addition to Unnur Anna and her collaborators in Iceland the team includes research scientists from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden; the Institute for Sustainability Studies at the University of Oslo; the University of Tartu, and the project The Capital Region of Denmark.
