Housing conditions and changes in professional activity during lockdown and the risk of prevalent and incident depression: Findings from the CONSTANCES cohort.

Background: Material conditions of lockdown and changes in regular functioning may have played a role on depressive manifestations. We aimed to examine the association between housing conditions and changes in professional activity and depression during the first COVID-19 outbreak in France.

Method: Participants of the CONSTANCES cohort were followed online. A first questionnaire covered the lockdown period (assessing housing conditions and changes in professional activity), and a second the post-lockdown period (assessing depression using the Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression-Scale (CES-D)). Incident depression was also estimated (with a previous CES-D measure). Logistic regression models were applied.

Results: 22,042 participants (median age 46 years, 53.2 % women) were included and 20,534 had a previous CES-D measure. Depression was associated with female gender, lower household income and past history of depression. A negative gradient between the number of rooms and the likelihood of depression was consistently observed (OR = 1.55 95 % [1.19-2.00] for one room, OR = 0.76 [0.65-0.88] for seven rooms), while a U-shape relationship was observed with the number of people living together (OR = 1.62 [1.42-1.84] for living alone, OR = 1.44 [1.07-1.92] for six persons). These associations were also observed with incident depression. Changes in professional activity were associated with depression (Started distance working (OR = 1.33 [1.17-1.50]). Starting distance working was also associated with incident depression (OR = 1.27 [1.08-1.48]).

Limitation: A cross-sectional design was used.

Conclusion: The consequences of lockdown on depression may vary depending on living conditions and changes in professional activity, including distance working. These results could help to better identify vulnerable people to promote mental health.