Anxiety and Worries of Individuals with Down Syndrome During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study in the UK

Sideropoulos, Vassilis; Kye, H.; Dukes, Daniel; Samson, Andrea Christiane; Palikara, Olympia; Herwegen, Jo Van

doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05450-0

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…While these experiences are not specific to parents of individuals with DS, families of children with special health care needs have significantly heightened risk of housing insecurity (Ghosh & Parish, 2015; Rose‐Jacobs et al, 2019) which can decrease mental and physical health of the parent (Guerrero et al, 2020; Suglia et al, 2011) and decrease the overall health (Ghosh & Parish, 2015; Rose‐Jacobs et al, 2019) and academic performance (Barling et al, 1999) of the child. Caregivers of individuals with DS report higher anxiety compared to caregivers of individuals with different disabilities and caregivers of typically‐developing individuals (Sideropoulos et al, 2023). Increased parental stress and anxiety has been shown to negatively affect parent/child relationships and child well‐being (Rose‐Jacobs et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Villani et al (2020) used a standardized assessment tool for 46 adults with DS in Italy and found that after the COVID‐19 lockdown, there was increased depression, worsened social withdrawal, and worsened ability to complete activities of daily living, but a decrease in aggressive behavior. A separate survey of 115 caregivers in the United Kingdom found lower anxiety levels for individuals with DS, more worry about friendships, and less worry about family‐related aspects compared to the other groups with other disabilities (autism spectrum disorder, unspecified intellectual disability, Williams syndrome, attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other unspecified syndromes or diagnoses) and their typically developing siblings (Sideropoulos et al, 2023). Given the potentially unique positive and negative impacts of the pandemic on individuals with DS, compared to individuals with other intellectual or physical disabilities, additional research is needed to evaluate the experience of COVID‐19 for these individuals and their families, especially within the United States as there is a relative paucity of such data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…of the child. Caregivers of individuals with DS report higher anxiety compared to caregivers of individuals with different disabilities and caregivers of typically-developing individuals(Sideropoulos et al, 2023). Increased parental stress and anxiety has been shown to negatively affect parent/child relationships and child well-being(Rose-Jacobs et al, 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Views on the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on health in people with Down syndrome from diverse backgrounds

Santoro

Baker²,

Blake

et al. 2023

American J of Med Genetics Pt A

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Down syndrome (DS) has a unique medical and psychological profile. To date, few studies have asked individuals with DS about their views of health, and fewer have explored the impact of COVID‐19 on the health of individuals with DS and their families. We used a mixed methods approach including two studies on the health of individuals with DS and their parents conducted during the COVID‐19 pandemic: (1) eight virtual focus groups, comprised of 20 parents and 8 individuals with DS to obtain participants' views of health, and (2) a 20‐item questionnaire on health care experience of patients with DS who are African American or come from primarily Spanish‐speaking homes. Focus group transcripts were coded using a hybrid inductive/deductive framework and thematically analyzed using the Framework Method. This questionnaire included questions regarding the impact of COVID‐19 on caregivers and their loved ones with DS; responses to these questions were summarized using descriptive statistics. Individuals with DS discussed the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on their physical and social health including masking, online learning, and online communication with friends and family. Parents of individuals with DS discussed how the COVID‐19 pandemic negatively impacted their child's physical, social, and mental health, as a result of virtual schooling and decreased socialization. There were unexpected positives of the pandemic such as improved hygiene and eased scheduling with telehealth visits. Caregivers noted COVID‐19 impacted their own anxiety, employment, and other domains that have potential ripple effects on the health of their children. The COVID‐19 pandemic had a pervasive impact on the mental health and wellness of caregivers as well as the physical, social, and mental health of individuals with DS.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Views on the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on health in people with Down syndrome from diverse backgrounds

Santoro

Baker²,

Blake

et al. 2023

American J of Med Genetics Pt A

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…An international network of collaborators translated and disseminated the questionnaire in 16 languages, eventually reaching more than 10,000 families in 78 countries around the world. The questionnaire (original English version available in Supplementary Materials) and database have been used for other papers that have been published (Su et al, 2021;Furar et al, 2022;Sideropoulos et al, 2022aSideropoulos et al, , 2022b. One parent of each family completed the anonymous survey which contained a total of 299 questions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anxiety in families of individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland

Poi

Dukes²,

Meuleman³

et al. 2023

Front. Educ.

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In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic generated a health, social, political, and economic crisis that dramatically reduced the institutional support for families of individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs). To understand how these families may have experienced and coped with the pandemic, we created an online questionnaire that reached more than 10,000 families in 78 countries. The current manuscript - framed within the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF-10) model - investigates the impact of specific health conditions and personal or environmental factors on the anxiety of families living in Switzerland during the early months of the pandemic. To assess how differences in anxiety over time were predicted by specific health conditions or personal and environmental factors, two separate multilevel analyses were conducted for parents and their children with NDCs (N = 256). First, results showed that only parents reported an increase in anxiety when the pandemic started. Second, concerns related to loss of institutional support and financial and economic problems were the most anxiety-provoking factors for parents, whereas parents reported that the most anxiety-provoking factor for children was their concern about becoming bored. Many parents may have struggled with economic problems and managed multiple extra roles and tasks in their daily lives because institutional support was no longer available. As reported by their parents, although individuals with NDCs did not show an increase in anxiety, they may have struggled with boredom. This result may represent the inability to engage in satisfactory activities in daily life associated with a partial unawareness of the pandemic and the respective protective measures. Further research should more thoroughly investigate the potential effects of the individual’s primary condition, presence and severity of intellectual disability and awareness of the pandemic on the anxiety of individuals with NDCs. Ultimately, we present a series of reflections and practical suggestions that could help guide policymakers in potential future periods of crisis, social estrangement, and distance learning.

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“…The most challenging effects of the pandemic, especially during lockdowns, are depression, anxiety, and worries due to unemployment, losing loved ones, or being personally affected by the disease [3]. While there are several programs that psychologists and therapists carry out to enable recovery from these issues, there is an immense need to study worry using other sources [4]. Traditional methods of public health monitoring, like questionnaires and clinical tests, have certain limitations; for example, they only cover a 1 https://covid19.who.int limited number of participants and are restricted to the data collection period [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building and Testing Fine-Grained Dataset of COVID-19 Tweets for Worry Prediction

Alharbi¹,

Fkih²

2022

IJACSA

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The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in the loss of human life worldwide and has increased worry concerning life, public health, the economy, and the future. With lockdown and social distancing measures in place, people turned to social media such as Twitter to share their feelings and concerns about the pandemic. Several studies have focused on analyzing Twitter users' sentiments and emotions. However, little work has focused on worry detection at a fine-grained level due to the lack of adequate datasets. Worry emotion is associated with notions such as anxiety, fear, and nervousness. In this study, we built a dataset for worry emotion classification called "WorryCov". It is a relatively large dataset derived from Twitter concerning worry about COVID-19. The data were annotated into three levels ("noworry", "worry", and "high-worry"). Using the annotated dataset, we investigated the performance of different machine learning algorithms (ML), including multinomial Naïve Bayes (MNB), support vector machine (SVM), logistic regression (LR), and random forests (RF). The results show that LR was the optimal approach, with an accuracy of 75%. Furthermore, the results indicate that the proposed model could be used by psychologists and researchers to predict Twitter users' worry levels during COVID-19 or similar crises.

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Anxiety and Worries of Individuals with Down Syndrome During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study in the UK

Cited by 15 publications

References 68 publications

Views on the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on health in people with Down syndrome from diverse backgrounds

Views on the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on health in people with Down syndrome from diverse backgrounds

Anxiety in families of individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland

Building and Testing Fine-Grained Dataset of COVID-19 Tweets for Worry Prediction

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