Pre-pandemic electrodermal activity predicts current COVID-related fears: household size during lockdown as a moderating factor

<b>Background:</b> Despite the immense impact of COVID-19 on mental health, there is a lack of prospective studies examining physiological predictors of current risk factors. Moreover, although physiological processes evidently interact with socio-demographic factors to modulate individuals’ response to a crisis, it remains largely unknown how these complex interactions shape people’s mental responses to COVID-19. To fill these gaps of knowledge, we chose a potent physiological marker of distress – heightened baseline electrodermal activity (EDA) measured before the pandemic began - and hypothesized it would be related to greater COVID-related fears and worries as a function of individuals’ household size. <b>Method:</b> 185 individuals (71% women), who had participated in our lab studies 2-3 years ago, in which we assessed their baseline EDA, completed several questionnaires online, including assessments of their current fears regarding COVID. Participants also reported the number of people in their household, with whom they had been together during a lockdown which was taking place at the time. We used pre-pandemic EDA measures in combination with their household size to predict participants’ current fears. <b>Results:</b> Pre-pandemic EDA measures predicted current COVID-related fears and worries. Specifically for the EDA measure “number of skin conductance responses”, we further found that the number of people in the household during the lockdown, moderated the abovementioned relationship, such that it occurred in individuals with average and larger households and not in those with small households. <b>Conclusions:</b> We provide a highly relevant and unique combination of physiological, socio-demographic, and psychological measures, which augments the potential to optimally target populations vulnerable to COVID-related distress, and subsequently offer them early mental health interventions.

背景：尽管新冠疫情（COVID-19）对心理健康造成了极为深远的影响，但目前仍缺乏前瞻性研究，旨在探讨当前心理风险因素的生理预测指标。此外，尽管生理过程显然会与社会人口学因素相互作用，以调节个体对危机的应激应答，但学界目前仍不甚明晰这些复杂的交互作用如何塑造人们对新冠疫情的心理反应。为填补这一研究空白，本研究选取了一项有效的痛苦生理标志物——疫情暴发前测得的基线皮肤电活动（electrodermal activity, EDA）升高，并提出假设：个体的新冠相关恐惧与担忧程度会随其家庭规模的变化，与基线EDA升高呈正相关。
方法：本研究招募了185名参与者（其中71%为女性），这些参与者曾在2至3年前参与过本课题组的实验室研究，当时我们已评估了他们的基线EDA水平。本次研究中，参与者完成了多项线上问卷，其中包含对当前新冠相关恐惧程度的测评。此外，参与者还报告了疫情封锁期间与其共同居住的家庭成员总数。本研究将疫情前的EDA测量数据与参与者的家庭规模相结合，以预测其当前的新冠相关恐惧程度。
结果：疫情前的EDA测量数据可显著预测参与者当前的新冠相关恐惧与担忧。具体而言，针对EDA指标中的「皮肤电反应次数（skin conductance responses）」，本研究进一步发现，封锁期间的家庭规模对上述关联具有调节作用：该关联仅存在于家庭规模中等及较大的个体中，而在家庭规模较小的个体中未观察到此效应。
结论：本研究整合了生理、社会人口学与心理学三类指标，其组合方式兼具相关性与独特性，这有助于优化识别易受新冠相关痛苦困扰的高危人群，进而为其提供早期心理健康干预措施。