Mental Health Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Ontario’s Youth: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health and wellbeing of Ontario's youth. Our study investigated the psychological impacts of COVID-19 on the pediatric population of Ontario, using a survey derived from the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) system to identify children who may benefit from seeking professional help. Our cross-sectional study examined the potential risk factors that contributed to worsening mental health and wellbeing in children, including changes in sleep patterns, appetite, and physical activity levels, as well as the diagnosis of a family member with COVID-19. Our study found that 24%, 9.4%, and 15.5% of participants exhibited symptoms of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), respectively, according to the RCADS system. Furthermore, there were significant associations between the presence of symptoms and the diagnosis of a family member with COVID-19 or a frontline worker in the family. This suggests a need to create interventions to support the families of frontline workers and those directly affected by a COVID-19 diagnosis.

Prevalence of mental health symptoms in children and adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A meta‐analysis

“…After deduplication, we assessed 24,926 abstracts for eligibility (see Figure 1). After the screening process, 191 studies were included in the systematic review 50,51,56–244 with a total...…”

The Parallel Pandemic: A Systematic Review on the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on OCD among Children and Adolescents

“…Diagnosis of relatives and family members with COVID-19 was also a highly cited (4) factor shaping OCD outcomes among children and adolescents. All the studies unequivocally reported a significant association between participants' adverse OCD outcomes and diagnoses of relatives and family members [4,34,36,49]. OCD was associated with participants who lost a family member due to COVID-19 [50].…”

“…Study [45] also narrowly studied patients with DSM-5-related psychiatric complaints. Conversely, the study [4] excluded children if they had psychological or physical comorbidities before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…As shown in Table S1, the relationships between the COVID-19 pandemic and OCD among children and adolescents were mixed. That notwithstanding, an overwhelming majority of the included studies (n = 17; 77%) reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on OCD among children and adolescents [4,5,7,[32][33][34]36,[38][39][40][41][42]45,46,[48][49][50]. A few studies (n = 3, 17%) found mixed relationships [31,37,47], and two (n = 2, 9%) found no influence of the pandemic on OCD among children and adolescents [30,51].…”

“…While about two percent of the global population suffers from OCD [2], the disorder is more pronounced among children and adolescents, with a prevalence rate of 3% [3]. The impacts of OCD on children include negatively affecting their ability to initiate and maintain friendships as well as familial relationships [4]. Further, due to the significant 2 of 21 amount of time spent focusing on these obsessions and compulsions, children may have difficulty concentrating and being on time, thus, impacting academic accomplishments and overall life course trajectory in later years.…”