Anxiety among Adolescents and Young Adults during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multi-Country Survey

Abstract

(1) Background: Adolescents-and-young-adults (AYA) are prone to anxiety. This study assessed AYA’s level of anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic; and determined if anxiety levels were associated with country-income and region, socio-demographic profile and medical history of individuals. (2) Methods: A survey collected data from participants in 25 countries. Dependent-variables included general-anxiety level, and independent-variables included medical problems, COVID-19 infection, age, sex, education, and country-income-level and region. A multilevel-multinomial-logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the association between dependent, and independent-variables. (3) Results: Of the 6989 respondents, 2964 (42.4%) had normal-anxiety, and 2621 (37.5%), 900 (12.9%) and 504 (7.2%) had mild, moderate and severe-anxiety, respectively. Participants from the African region (AFR) had lower odds of mild, moderate and severe than normal-anxiety compared to those from the Eastern-Mediterranean-region (EMR). Also, participants from lower-middle-income-countries (LMICs) had higher odds of mild and moderate than normal-anxiety compared to those from low-income-countries (LICs). Females, older-adolescents, with medical-problems, suspected-but-not-tested-for-COVID-19, and those with friends/family-infected with COVID-19 had significantly greater odds of different anxiety-levels. (4) Conclusions: One-in-five AYA had moderate to severe-anxiety during the COVID-19-pandemic. There were differences in anxiety-levels among AYAs by region and income-level, emphasizing the need for targeted public health interventions based on nationally-identified priorities.

Prenatal maternal stress and the severity of autism spectrum disorder: A cross‐sectional study

“…The strength of this study includes the recruitment strategy, stratification, assessment of autism diagnoses, and application of a validated measure of human prenatal stress. In addition, it tackles an area of research that has not been given enough consideration in the past, especially when studies worldwide are emphasizing the adverse effect of COVID‐19 pandemic affecting the mental health of parents, children, and pregnant woman (López‐Morales et al., 2021; Sabbagh et al., 2022). This study is also the first to address the link between maternal stress during pregnancy and ASD severity in children in a population with high consanguineous marriages (El‐Mouzan et al., 2007; Warsy et al., 2014).…”

A multi-country study on the impact of sex and age on oral features of COVID-19 infection in adolescents and young adults

“…These oral conditions may be the side effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection, or may be the sequel to super-infections, immuno-compromise, or complications of medications used to manage COVID-19 infection [ 21 ]. Psychological stress, a complication of the COVID-19 pandemic [ 22 , 23 ], and poor oral hygiene during the pandemic might also play a part in the manifestation of gingival inflammation, dry mouth, and ulcers. Some lesions may be attributed to ACE2 receptor of SARS-CoV-2 found in the mucosa acting as a gateway to COVID-19 infection [ 24 ].…”