The Impact of Perceived Vulnerability to Disease and Social Isolation on Mental Wellbeing

In-light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the UK government has enforced a number of nationwide and local lockdowns to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to limited existing research, the current study aimed to explore the impact of social isolation and perceived vulnerability to disease on an individual’s well-being during the covid-19 pandemic. 29 male (N = 10) and female (N = 19) participants took part in a questionnaire based study distributed through social media. A regression analysis identified that 65% of a person’s mental wellbeing could be predicted by both social isolation (-.786) and perceived vulnerability to disease (-.386). Findings have important implications for understanding and improving the general public’s wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, as discussed subsequently.