This is how Sunderland Echo readers say the lockdown has affected their lives - and their biggest concerns

Our lockdown survey, published across this title and 150 others across the UK last week, offers an insight into how the coronavirus crisis and lockdown has impacted people in Sunderland and their concerns for the future.

In total we asked readers 25 questions on their attitude towards the lockdown.

Of these questions three focused on how the lockdown has affected mental health, relationships and concerns for the future - and today we can reveal how people in Sunderland answered.

The majority of Sunderland Echo readers who completed our survey said they felt personally most concerned about the ‘health and wellbeing of family/friends’ with 61% choosing that. 17% said their ‘own health and wellbeing’, 7.9% said ‘impact on your children's education’, while just over 5% said both ‘security of employment/work’ and ‘your own/household finances’.

READ THIS: How our lives have changed during lockdown

By comparison, on a national level, 53% answered that they were most concerned about the ‘health and wellbeing of family/ friends’, 17% said their ‘own health and wellbeing’, 8.6% ‘security of employment/ work’, 8.5% ‘impact on your children’s education’ and 6.7% ‘your own/household finances’.

Of those who took part in the survey, many Sunderland Echo readers said they had suffered mental health effects due to lockdown.

38% answered that their mental health was 'slightly affected’, 12% ‘severely affected’, 21% 'not much affected’ and 28% ‘not at all affected’.

Nationally, 40% answered that their mental health was ‘slightly affected’, 12% ‘severely affected’, 23% ‘not much affected’ and 22% ‘not at all affected’.

Here’s what Sunderland Echo readers think about easing lockdown

When asked about the effects the lockdown has had on their relationship with a live-in partner or spouse, the majority of Sunderland Echo readers who took part in the survey responded that it had not changed the relationship.

43.6% said that, while 12% said ‘it has brought us much closer together’, 10.5% said ‘it has brought us slightly closer together’, 5% said ‘it has pulled us apart slightly’ and 1.2% said ‘it has pulled us apart a lot’. 25.3% of those taking part said they did not live with a partner or spouse.

The national average of answers on this subject was: 43% ‘it has not changed the relationship’, 12% ‘it has brought us slightly closer together’, 10.5% ‘it has brought us much closer together, 4.9% ‘it has pulled us apart slightly’, 1.6% ‘it has pulled us apart a lot’ while 25.7% answered that they do not live with a partner or spouse.

During the course of this week we will be publishing more results of what local people had to say in our lockdown survey.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world.

But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you.