COVID-19 and Wellbeing Survey

The COVID-19 and Wellbeing Survey was initially distributed via email to all Iowa State Faculty, Staff, Students and Alumni (for whom the ISU Foundation had email addresses that could be shared for this purpose) on April 3, 2020. The goal of the survey was to understand how COVID-19-related guidelines, such as social distancing, social isolation, and sheltering in place, and the pandemic itself affected physical and mental wellbeing. Participation in the study consisted of completing a brief online survey battery (~20 minutes) and was intended to help us understand the impact of COVID-19 in our communities, state, country, and world. Participants could indicate they were interested in continuing to complete future surveys and weekly follow-ups were then sent for 8 weeks (last survey sent on May 29, 2020), and then monthly follow-ups thereafter, for a total of 12 months, the last survey being sent on June 28 of 2021. Participants self-reported demographic information, COVID-19-related guidelines, and behaviors, sedentary time, outside time, physical activity behaviors, screen time, distress, depression, anxiety, loneliness, positive mental health, changes in work, sleep, the stigma associated with seeking help for mental health challenges, and vaccine status.