The COVID-19 pandemic has been an anxiety-inducing stressor that has affected every aspect of human life.

The research, published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders, found that high anxiety in men is related to exposure to COVID-19 misinformation, while women's anxiety was tied to precarious employment.

"It is fundamental that we strive to understand the social factors that contributed to these striking differences," said lead author Shen (Lamson) Lin, a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

"The study discovered that frequent exposure to fake COVID-19 news is associated with mental health consequences, particularly for men," Lin added.

As exposure to suspected COVID-19 misinformation increased among men, the odds of anxiety disorders escalated.

Men who reported that they were exposed to misinformation at least once a week were three times more likely to report high anxiety.

On the other hand, men who reported that they were exposed to misinformation multiple times a day, were six and a half times more likely to report clinically significant anxiety compared to those who reported that they rarely or never saw misinformation about COVID-19.

Women who experienced job precarity during the pandemic had triple the odds of experiencing Generalized Anxiety Disorder compared to women who were securely employed, after controlling for confounding variables, including sociodemographic factors.

It was not seen among men did, possibly because job precarity was not evenly distributed among genders.

"Women are also overrepresented in food service and accommodation sectors, which were hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis".

The study included 1,753 men and 2,016 women aged 15 years and older.

In addition, the research also identifies common risk factors of anxiety disorders for both genders, including increased intake of alcohol, cannabis and junk/sweet food during the COVID-19 outbreak.

"Mental health interventions need to be gender responsive," said Lin. "They should also tackle upstream social determinants of health in this public health emergency."

(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture have been edited by FIT.)