Health, well-being and food security of families deteriorating under
COVID-19 stress

Date:
July 24, 2020
Source:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Summary:
The ongoing disruptive changes from efforts to reduce the spread of
COVID-19 are having a substantial negative impact on the physical
and mental well-being of parents and their children across the
United States, according to a new national survey.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The ongoing disruptive changes from efforts to reduce the spread of
COVID-19 are having a substantial negative impact on the physical and
mental well-being of parents and their children across the country,
according to a new national survey published today in Pediatrics.


========================================================================== Families are particularly affected by stressors stemming from changes in
work, school and day care schedules that are impacting finances and access
to community support networks, according to the five-day survey of parents across the U.S. run June 5-June 10 run by Monroe Carell Jr. Children's
Hospital at Vanderbilt and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital
of Chicago.

Top line results showed:
* 27% of parents reported worsening mental health for themselves *
14% reported worsening behavioral health for their children * 24%
of parents reported a loss of regular child care
The impact of abrupt, systemic changes to employment and strain from
having access to a limited social network is disrupting the core of
families across the country. Worsening physical and mental health were
similar no matter the person's race, ethnicity, income, education status
or location. However, larger declines in mental well-being were reported
by women and unmarried parents.

"COVID-19 and measures to control its spread have had a substantial effect
on the nation's children," said Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, director of
the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy and a neonatologist at
Children's Hospital in Nashville. "Today an increasing number of the
nation's children are going hungry, losing insurance employer-sponsored insurance and their regular child care. The situation is urgent and
requires immediate attention from federal and state policymakers."
Parents with children under age 18 were surveyed to measure changes
in their health, insurance status, food security, use of public food
assistance resources, child care and use of health care services since
the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Since March, more families are reporting food insecurity, and more
reliance on food banks, and delaying children's visits to health care providers. With COVID-19 cases and deaths on the rise around the country, families may continue to experience higher levels of need and disruption.

* The proportion of families with moderate or severe food insecurity
increased from 6% to 8% from March to June.

* Children covered by parents' employer-sponsored insurance coverage
decreased from 63% to 60%.

Strikingly, families with young children report worse mental health than
those with older children, pointing to the central role that child care arrangements play in the day-to-day functioning of the family.

"The loss of regular child care related to COVID-19 has been a major
shock to many families," says Matthew M. Davis, MD, MAPP, interim chair
of the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg
School of Medicine and senior vice-president and chief of Community
Health Transformation at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of
Chicago. "In almost half of all cases where parents said that their own
mental health had worsened and that their children's behavior had worsened during the pandemic, they had lost their usual child care arrangements. We
need to be aware of these types of stressors for families, which extend
far beyond COVID-19 as an infection or an illness."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Vanderbilt_University_Medical_Center. Original written by Holly
Fletcher. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Stephen W. Patrick, Laura E. Henkhaus, Joseph S. Zickafoose,
Kim Lovell,
Alese Halvorson, Sarah Loch, Mia Letterie, Matthew
M. Davis. Well-being of Parents and Children During the COVID-19
Pandemic: A National Survey.

Pediatrics, 2020; e2020016824 DOI: 10.1542/peds.2020-016824 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200724104155.htm

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