Background The impact of general population lockdown implemented in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic needs to be evaluated. We describe here a longitudinal study on the mental health of adults in France. Methods We did a secondary analysis of a web-based cohort, initially set up to study home and leisure injuries, in order to measure the consequences of the national lockdown implemented in France from 17 March 2020 to 11 May 2020, and to assess potential vulnerability and resilience factors. Eligible participants were invited to answer an online questionnaire designed to assess their living conditions and health during lockdown. Comparisons were done with answers provided 4.8 years earlier on average. Results On 15th April 2020, we sent email invitations to 9598 participants recruited between November 2014 and December 2019 and 1237 volunteers took part in the study by completing the online questionnaire. The proportion of those with anxiety symptoms markedly increased from 17.3 to 20.1%. The average self-rated level of mental health decreased from 7.77 to 7.58. Women, the elderly and the youngest appeared to be more vulnerable. A small living space (less than 30 m2) was associated with an increase in depression symptoms (PHQ-9 score), and poorer self-rated physical health at recruitment was associated with an increase in anxiety symptoms (GAD-7 score). On the contrary, the average self-rated level of physical health markedly increased from 7.44 to 7.94 between recruitment and lockdown, and the proportion of those who reported a level of 9 or 10 jumped from 25.7% at recruitment to 43.1% during lockdown. Conclusions Mental health deteriorated during lockdown in France during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Overall, self-rated physical health improved but those who experienced a worse physical health were more likely to report anxiety symptoms.

Objective To assess the association between mind wandering (thinking unrelated to the task at hand) and the risk of being responsible for a motor vehicle crash.Design Responsibility case-control study.Setting Adult emergency department of a university hospital in France, April 2010 to August 2011.Participants 955 drivers injured in a motor vehicle crash.Main outcome measures Responsibility for the crash, mind wandering, external distraction, negative affect, alcohol use, psychotropic drug use, and sleep deprivation. Potential confounders were sociodemographic and crash characteristics.Results Intense mind wandering (highly disrupting/distracting content) was associated with responsibility for a traffic crash (17% (78 of 453 crashes in which the driver was thought to be responsible) v 9% (43 of 502 crashes in which the driver was not thought to be responsible); adjusted odds ratio 2.12, 95% confidence interval 1.37 to 3.28).Conclusions Mind wandering while driving, by decoupling attention from visual and auditory perceptions, can jeopardise the ability of the driver to incorporate information from the environment, thereby threatening safety on the roads.