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Pandemic Isolation and Mental Health Among Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

Donald E. Brannen Open the ORCID record for Donald E. Brannen [Opens in a new window] ,
Sheryl Wynn ,
Jaime Shuster Open the ORCID record for Jaime Shuster [Opens in a new window]  and
Melissa Howell
Donald E. Brannen*
Affiliation:
Greene County Public Health, Xenia, Ohio
Sheryl Wynn
Affiliation:
Greene County Public Health, Xenia, Ohio
Jaime Shuster
Affiliation:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Foundation
Melissa Howell
Affiliation:
Greene County Public Health, Xenia, Ohio
*
Corresponding author: Donald Brannen, Email: dbrannen@gcph.info.
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Abstract

Objective:

Mental health issues increased during the COVID - 19 pandemic, especially among children. Our past research efforts found that surveillance data can address a variety of health concerns; that personal psychological awareness impacted ability to cope, and mental health outcomes were improved when survivors were triaged to mental health countermeasures. To build upon our public health efforts, we wanted to see if increased screen time due to remote learning caused by the pandemic influenced school aged children’s mental health.

Methods:

With the hypothesis that excessive time spent isolated during remote learning increased the amount of mental health events in children, we conducted a public health surveillance project on actual diagnoses rather than just symptoms, controlling for historical mental health and emotional disorders.

Results:

The entire cohort of children aged 6 to 17 years were studied over time before and during the pandemic for their medically diagnosed mental health and emotional outcomes by the amount of pandemic induced social isolation.

Conclusions:

After controlling for historical diagnoses and the rate of COVID - 19, the effect of pandemic - induced social isolation had a linear increase on the amount of anxiety, resulting in a 4-fold increase in pandemic social isolation - induced anxiety.

Keywords

childadolescentmental healthpandemicanxietyCOVID - 19
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e353
Creative Commons
This is a work of the US Government and is not subject to copyright protection within the United States. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.
Copyright
© Greene County Public Health, 2023

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