Penn professors co-author article examining pandemic mental health disparities across demographics

Penn School of Social Policy and Practice Professor Chenyi Ma co-authored a paper that examined how unemployment and food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic affected anxiety levels among different demographic groups.

The paper, which was published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B uses a "disaster risk management framework" to examine mental health disparities and offers insights for future preparedness. Ma co-authored the article with Penn Systems Engineering Professor Emeritus Tony Smith and Penn Social Policy professor Dennis Culhane. 

The three examined data from the U.S. Household Pulse Survey to explore the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder in connection with demographic characteristics, economic challenges, and COVID-19 vaccination, and used logistic regression models for predictive purposes.

Their findings demonstrated that Black and Hispanic Americans experienced higher rates of GAD compared to non-Hispanic white Americans. The researchers attributed these disparities to disproportionate experiences of job loss and food insecurity and also revealed that mental health disparities were motivated by economic challenges.

“While vaccines were primarily framed as a tool to prevent severe illness and death, our findings suggest that they also played an important role in reducing anxiety, especially among older adults,” Ma said. "This underscores the power of public health measures in shaping not just physical health but also mental resilience. … Too often, emergency preparedness focuses solely on physical protection and economic recovery, but mental health support is equally critical.”

When describing his research, Ma emphasized that it is important to him because it highlights the "overlooked mental health consequences of disasters—not just in terms of individual well-being, but in how policies and interventions can either exacerbate or alleviate psychological distress.”

The research as a whole centers on four areas: the social determinants of health and behavioral outcomes in disaster context, social vulnerability connected to disasters and resilience in those circumstances, risk analysis tied to policy formation for disaster mitigation, and psychological factors underlying public responses to disaster. 

The article also underscores the importance of integrating mental health into emergency response planning. The authors propose that policies concerning unemployment assistance, food access, and prompt vaccine distribution are given importance in future health emergency responses. 

Ma hopes the article serves to spark "further research and action on how we can better support mental health resilience during and after public health emergencies.”