Intersectional inequalities in mental health by education, income, gender, and age before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands: a longitudinal study

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the study sample and paired t-test results indicating significance of mental health changes, based on complete data n = 1157

Intersectional social strata dimensions	N (%)	Mental health score 2014	Mental health score 2021	Mean mental health change¹ and confidence interval	t-value	Degrees of freedom	p-value
Total sample	1157 (100%)	74.4	73.4	-1.0* (-1.8 – -0.2)	2.4	1156	0.02
Educational attainment (2014)
Low	297 (25.7%)	73.7	71.8	-1.9* (-3.7 – -0.1)	2.1	296	0.04
Middle	295 (25.5%)	73.4	72.8	-0.6 (-2.2–1.0)	0.7	294	0.47
High	565 (48.8%)	75.3	74.6	-0.7 (-1.8–0.3)	1.4	564	0.18
Income level (2014)
Low	356 (30.8%)	70.2	69.4	-0.8 (-2.4–0.8)	1.0	355	0.33
Middle	449 (38.8%)	75.2	74.4	-0.8 (-2.1–0.5)	1.2	448	0.24
High	352 (30.4%)	77.7	76.2	-1.5* (-2.8 – -0.2)	2.2	351	0.03
Gender (2014)
Female	608 (52.5%)	72.5	72.1	-0.4 (-1.6–0.7)	0.8	607	0.46
Male	549 (47.5%)	76.4	74.8	-1.6* (-2.8 – -0.5)	2.8	548	0.01
Age (2014)
25–39 years old	243 (21.0%)	72.9	72.2	-0.7 (-2.4–1.1)	0.8	242	0.44
40–64 years old	525 (45.4%)	73.7	74.3	0.6 (-0.6–1.8)	-1.0	524	0.31
65 and older	389 (33.6%)	76.2	72.9	-3.3* (-4.8 – -1.9)	4.6	388	0.00

*denotes statistical significance of paired samples t-tests based on the 95% confidence interval

ISSN: 1475-9276