Background: The effects of COVID-19 on the population's mental health and wellbeing are likely to be profound and long-lasting. Aims: To investigate the trajectory of mental health and wellbeing during the first six weeks of lockdown in adults in the UK. Method: A quota survey design and a sampling frame that permitted recruitment of a national sample was employed. Findings for waves 1 (31 st March to 9 th April 2020), 2 (10 th April to 27 th April 2020) and 3 (28 th April to 11 th May 2020) are reported here. A range of mental health factors was assessed: pre-existing mental health problems, suicide attempts and self-harm, suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, defeat, entrapment, mental well-being, and loneliness. Results: A total of 3077 adults in the UK completed the survey at wave 1. Suicidal ideation increased over time. Symptoms of anxiety, levels of defeat and entrapment decreased across waves whereas levels of depressive symptoms did not change significantly. Positive wellbeing also increased. Levels of loneliness did not change significantly over waves. Subgroup analyses showed that females, young people (18-29 years), those from more socially disadvantaged backgrounds, and those with pre-existing mental health problems have worse mental health outcomes during the pandemic across most factors. Conclusions: The mental health and wellbeing of the UK adult population appears to have been affected in the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increasing rates of suicidal thoughts across waves, especially among young adults, are concerning.

We describe levels of sexual activity, problems with sexual functioning and concerns about sexual health among older adults in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and associations with age, health and partnership factors. Specifically, a total of 6201 core ELSA participants (56% women) aged 50 to >90 completed a comprehensive Sexual Relationships and Activities questionnaire (SRA-Q) included in ELSA wave 6 (2012/13). The prevalence of reporting any sexual activity in the last year declined with age, with women less likely than men at all ages to report being sexually active. Poorer health was associated with lower levels of sexual activity and a higher prevalence of problems with sexual functioning, particularly among men. Difficulties most frequently reported by sexually active women related to becoming sexually aroused (32%) and achieving orgasm (27%), while for men it was erectile function (39%). Sexual health concerns most commonly reported by women related to their level of sexual desire (11%) and frequency of sexual activities (8%). Among men it was level of sexual desire (15%) and erectile difficulties (14%). While the likelihood of reporting sexual health concerns tended to decrease with age in women, the opposite was seen in men. Poor sexual functioning and disagreements with a partner about initiating and/or feeling obligated to have sex were associated with greater concerns about and dissatisfaction with overall sex life. Levels of sexual activity decline with increasing age, although a sizable minority of men and women remain sexually active until the eighth and ninth decades of life.Problems with sexual functioning were relatively common, but overall levels of sexual health concerns were much lower. Sexually active men reported higher levels of concern with their sexual health and sexual dissatisfaction than women at all ages. Older peoples' sexual health should be managed, not just in the context of their age, gender and general health, but also within their existing sexual relationship.

The cumulative science linking stress to negative health outcomes is vast. Stress can affect health directly, through autonomic and neuroendocrine responses, but also indirectly, through changes in health behaviors. In this review, we present a brief overview of ( a) why we should be interested in stress in the context of health; ( b) the stress response and allostatic load; ( c) some of the key biological mechanisms through which stress impacts health, such as by influencing hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation and cortisol dynamics, the autonomic nervous system, and gene expression; and ( d) evidence of the clinical relevance of stress, exemplified through the risk of infectious diseases. The studies reviewed in this article confirm that stress has an impact on multiple biological systems. Future work ought to consider further the importance of early-life adversity and continue to explore how different biological systems interact in the context of stress and health processes. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 72 is January 4, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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Previous research has shown high cortisol reactors to consume a greater amount of snack foods than low reactors following a laboratory stressor. The current study tested whether high cortisol reactors also consume more snacks than low reactors in response to field stressors. Fifty pre-menopausal women completed a laboratory stressor, provided saliva samples to assess cortisol reactor status and then completed daily hassles and snack intake diaries over the next fourteen days. Hierarchical multivariate linear modelling showed a significant association between daily hassles and snack intake within the overall sample, where an increased number of hassles was associated with increased snack intake. This significant positive association between number of hassles and snack intake was only observed within the high cortisol reactors and not within the low cortisol reactors. These findings suggest that high cortisol reactivity to stress promotes food intake. Furthermore, the eating style variables of restraint, emotional eating, external eating and disinhibition were more strongly associated with snack intake in high reactors than in low reactors. This suggests that cortisol reactivity may in part account for the moderating role of eating style on stress-induced eating. The results are discussed within the context of future health risk.