Pandemic Lockdowns Hurt Women In Developing World: UCSD Study

SAN DIEGO, CA — COVID-19 lockdowns, while important to preventing coronavirus spread, led to increased depression and anxiety rates, along food insecurity among women in India and other parts of the developing world, a study by UC San Diego released Thursday found.

The study by UC San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy found that women whose social position may make them more vulnerable -- those with daughters and those living in female-headed households -- experienced even larger declines in mental health as a result of lockdowns.

The study will be published in the Journal of Development Economics. Researchers conducted telephone surveys with 1,545 households in various rural regions in Northern India in fall 2019, before the pandemic, and August 2020, near the height of the first COVID-19 wave in India.

Certain villages and districts had varying containment policies, allowing researchers to compare health outcomes of women who experienced lockdowns for several months to those who experienced no lockdowns.

The authors considered factors in their analysis including COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the novel coronavirus.

For the women surveyed, moving from zero to average levels of lockdowns is associated with a 38% increase in depression, a 44% increase in anxiety and a 73% increase in exhaustion, according to the study.

"Not having access to work and socialization outside the home can be very detrimental for women's mental health in developing countries," said study co-author Gaurav Khanna, an assistant economics professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy.

The study found that the pandemic "resulted in dramatic losses of income for women," with around 25% of households reducing the number of meals consumed, compared to a normal month.

Women were primarily impacted, because in many cultures throughout the developing world, their intake is the first to be limited when food is scarce.

"We wanted to know the impact lockdown polices have on women in lower- income countries where there may be limited social safety nets to absorb these shocks," Khanna said. "As we found in our study, the consequences of lockdown policies are exacerbated for women.

"We hope policymakers in developing countries and beyond know what the implications are for these policies, especially for those in vulnerable positions because if there is another wave, communities could be faced with similar lockdowns."

The study made recommendations to help address mental and physical health consequences women experienced during the pandemic.

According to the authors, policymakers "should consider what supportive measures are necessary to limit economic devastation from lockdowns and they should target aid, particularly access to food, to vulnerable households and women."

As one example, "in certain parts of India, the government did distribute food to rural areas in certain parts of India, which helped prevent malnutrition and food insecurity," according to the study.

Study authors wrote that over-the-phone counseling and helpline services can also help address the pandemic's mental health impacts.

Although the study focused on the developing world, it found implications for women everywhere experiencing lockdowns.

"We suspect the impact in the U.S. on women and mothers in particular was also exacerbated," Khanna said.

"When kids are not in school, or daycare, the burden usually falls on women because of traditional gender roles with child care. Policymakers should be cognizant of the fact that women are going to be impacted differently by these policies."

— City News Service