TY - JOUR
T1 - Psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women with trauma histories
T2 - Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN)
AU - Jakubowski, Karen P.
AU - Koffer, Rachel E.
AU - Matthews, Karen A.
AU - Burnett-Bowie, Sherri Ann M.
AU - Derby, Carol A.
AU - Yu, Elaine W.
AU - Green, Robin
AU - Thurston, Rebecca C.
N1 - Funding Information:
The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) has grant support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), through the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), and the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH; U01NR004061, U01AG012505, U01AG012535, U01AG012531, U01AG012539, U01AG012546, U01AG012553, U01AG012554, U01AG012495, U19AG063720). Karen P. Jakubowski is supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute of the NIH (K23HL159293). The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIA, NINR, ORWH, or the NIH. Portions of these data were presented at the 2021 North American Menopause Society Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, September 22–25, 2021. Rebecca C. Thurston has served as a consultant for Astellas Pharma, Vira Health, Happify Health, Bayer, Pfizer, Virtue Health, and Procter & Gamble Company, unrelated to the submitted work. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to report. We thank the study staff at each site and all the women who participated in SWAN.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - Older adults, particularly those with trauma histories, may be vulnerable to adverse psychosocial outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. We tested associations between prepandemic childhood abuse or intimate partner violence (IPV) and elevated depressive, anxiety, conflict, and sleep symptoms during the pandemic among aging women. Women (N = 582, age: 65–77 years) from three U.S. sites (Pittsburgh, Boston, Newark) of the longitudinal Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) reported pandemic-related psychosocial impacts from June 2020–March 2021. Prepandemic childhood abuse; physical/emotional IPV; social functioning; physical comorbidities; and depressive, anxiety, and sleep symptoms were drawn from SWAN assessments between 2009 and 2017. There were no measures of prepandemic conflict. In total, 47.7% and 35.3% of women, respectively, reported childhood abuse or IPV. Using logistic regression models adjusted for age; race/ethnicity; education; site; prepandemic social functioning and physical comorbidities; and, in respective models, prepandemic depressive, anxiety, or sleep symptoms, childhood abuse predicted elevated anxiety symptoms, OR = 1.67, 95% CI [1.10, 2.54]; household conflict, OR = 2.19, 95% CI [1.32, 3.61]; and nonhousehold family conflict, OR = 2.14, 95% CI [1.29, 3.55]. IPV predicted elevated sleep problems, OR = 1.63, 95% CI [1.07, 2.46], and household conflict, OR = 1.96, 95% CI [1.20, 3.21]. No associations emerged for depressive symptoms after adjusting for prepandemic depression. Aging women with interpersonal trauma histories reported worse anxiety, sleep, and conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic than those without. Women's trauma histories and prepandemic symptoms are critical to understanding the psychosocial impacts of the pandemic.
AB - Older adults, particularly those with trauma histories, may be vulnerable to adverse psychosocial outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. We tested associations between prepandemic childhood abuse or intimate partner violence (IPV) and elevated depressive, anxiety, conflict, and sleep symptoms during the pandemic among aging women. Women (N = 582, age: 65–77 years) from three U.S. sites (Pittsburgh, Boston, Newark) of the longitudinal Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) reported pandemic-related psychosocial impacts from June 2020–March 2021. Prepandemic childhood abuse; physical/emotional IPV; social functioning; physical comorbidities; and depressive, anxiety, and sleep symptoms were drawn from SWAN assessments between 2009 and 2017. There were no measures of prepandemic conflict. In total, 47.7% and 35.3% of women, respectively, reported childhood abuse or IPV. Using logistic regression models adjusted for age; race/ethnicity; education; site; prepandemic social functioning and physical comorbidities; and, in respective models, prepandemic depressive, anxiety, or sleep symptoms, childhood abuse predicted elevated anxiety symptoms, OR = 1.67, 95% CI [1.10, 2.54]; household conflict, OR = 2.19, 95% CI [1.32, 3.61]; and nonhousehold family conflict, OR = 2.14, 95% CI [1.29, 3.55]. IPV predicted elevated sleep problems, OR = 1.63, 95% CI [1.07, 2.46], and household conflict, OR = 1.96, 95% CI [1.20, 3.21]. No associations emerged for depressive symptoms after adjusting for prepandemic depression. Aging women with interpersonal trauma histories reported worse anxiety, sleep, and conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic than those without. Women's trauma histories and prepandemic symptoms are critical to understanding the psychosocial impacts of the pandemic.
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U2 - 10.1002/jts.22896
DO - 10.1002/jts.22896
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85143886052
SN - 0894-9867
VL - 36
SP - 167
EP - 179
JO - Journal of Traumatic Stress
JF - Journal of Traumatic Stress
IS - 1
ER -