Monday, July 22, 2024

Young People's Mental Health Suffered Amid COVID Pandemic, 3 New Studies Suggest; Neighborhood Impact On Children's Well-Being Shifted During COVID-19 Pandemic, Study Suggests, and other C-Virus related stories

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Young people's mental health suffered amid COVID pandemic, 3 new studies suggest:
The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns harmed the mental health of Canadian and US youth, exacerbating depression, anxiety, and eating disorders among certain groups, according to a trio of new studies published in JAMA journals.
Eating-disorder hospitalizations rose 65% amid pandemic
One of two studies from the Pediatric Outcome Improvement through Coordination of Research Networks (POPCORN) published today found that the rate of hospitalizations for mood disorders and substance use declined among male and females aged 6 to 20 years from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But admissions for eating disorders rose for both sexes, and admissions for anxiety, personality disorders, suicide, and self-harm increased significantly among females.
For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, the researchers analyzed public health administrative data on all Canadians aged 6 to 20 years and from April 2016 to March 2023.
Of 6.3 million Canadian youths, there were 218,101 hospitalizations for mental illness (ages 6 to 11 years, 5.8%; 12 to 17, 66.9%; and 18 to 20, 27.3%; 66.0% female). Overall, hospitalizations for mental disorders fell from 51.6 to 47.9 per 10,000 person-years from before the pandemic to the pandemic among both males and females.
But hospitalizations rose among both sexes for anxiety (11%), personality disorders (21%), suicide or self-harm (10%), and eating disorders in females (66%) and males (47%). For both sexes, hospitalizations declined for mood disorders (-16%), substance use (-17%), and other mental disorders (-22%).
The proportion of hospitalizations for mental conditions climbed in the 12- to 17-years-old age-group, from 65.8% before the pandemic to 68.4% during the pandemic. During the same periods, hospitalizations decreased from 6.2% to 5.3% for participants aged 6 to 11 years and 18 to 20 (28.0% to 26.3%).
"These findings suggest that services geared to females, specifically screening for eating disorders, anxiety, personality disorders, and suicidality, will be important to maintain in future pandemics."
Females made up 63.8% of hospitalizations for mental disorders before COVID-19, increasing to 69.0% during the pandemic. Prepandemic, hospitalizations of patients in the most materially deprived quintile accounted for a larger share of hospitalizations (24.4%) than the least deprived (16.9%). During the pandemic, this difference narrowed to 21.9% and 18.6%, respectively.
Residence in a rural area was linked to a higher rate of mental disorder hospitalizations for all conditions but eating disorders.
There were 881,765 emergency department (ED) visits for mental health conditions during the study period. Females made up a greater proportion of available ED visits during the pandemic (65.8%) than before (60.0%), along with participants aged 12 to 17 (52.7% vs 46.0%).
"Understanding how the pandemic affected children, adolescents, and young adults in Canada is crucial to inform public health policy, and these findings suggest that services geared to females, specifically screening for eating disorders, anxiety, personality disorders, and suicidality, will be important to maintain in future pandemics," the authors wrote. --->READ MORE HERE
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
Neighborhood impact on children's well-being shifted during COVID-19 pandemic, study suggests:
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted daily life and has raised concerns about its impact on children's well-being. A new study from the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Program (ECHO) sheds light on how a neighborhood's physical and social environment influenced a child's well-being before and during the pandemic.
According to an analysis of ECHO Cohort data, the neighborhood environment was less likely to be associated with child well-being during the pandemic than in the pre-pandemic period. The pandemic brought unprecedented social changes, altering how people and families interacted with their neighborhoods.
For example, during the pandemic, neighborhood safety was less of a concern for children who spent more time indoors at home and less time outside. Likewise, the closure of parks and playgrounds limited access to green spaces and recreation, making those factors less important to a child's well-being at that time.
The findings are published in the journal Environmental Research.
The study authors point out that the new findings align with previous research showing a link between neighborhood characteristics and child well-being. For instance, previous studies indicate that living in neighborhoods with higher poverty levels, lower educational attainment, and poorer housing conditions are associated with worse child health outcomes, including physical and mental health, cognitive development, and academic achievement.
"Neighborhood characteristics were widely known to be associated with children's well-being. Until now, we hadn't looked at how the COVID-19 pandemic might change their relationships," said Xueying Zhang, Ph.D., of Baylor College of Medicine. "Additionally, the impacts of the pandemic may be different among children of different races." --->READ MORE HERE
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