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Caregivers’ mental distress and child health during the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan

To clarify the physical and mental conditions of children during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and consequent social distancing in relation to the mental condition of their caregivers. This internet-based nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted between April 30 and May 13, 2020. The p...

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Autores principales: Horiuchi, Sayaka, Shinohara, Ryoji, Otawa, Sanae, Akiyama, Yuka, Ooka, Tadao, Kojima, Reiji, Yokomichi, Hiroshi, Miyake, Kunio, Yamagata, Zentaro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7728265/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33301517
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243702
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author Horiuchi, Sayaka
Shinohara, Ryoji
Otawa, Sanae
Akiyama, Yuka
Ooka, Tadao
Kojima, Reiji
Yokomichi, Hiroshi
Miyake, Kunio
Yamagata, Zentaro
author_facet Horiuchi, Sayaka
Shinohara, Ryoji
Otawa, Sanae
Akiyama, Yuka
Ooka, Tadao
Kojima, Reiji
Yokomichi, Hiroshi
Miyake, Kunio
Yamagata, Zentaro
author_sort Horiuchi, Sayaka
collection PubMed
description To clarify the physical and mental conditions of children during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and consequent social distancing in relation to the mental condition of their caregivers. This internet-based nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted between April 30 and May 13, 2020. The participants were 1,200 caregivers of children aged 3–14 years. Child health issues were categorized into “at least one” or “none” according to caregivers’ perception. Caregivers’ mental status was assessed using the Japanese version of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale-6. The association between caregivers’ mental status and child health issues was analyzed using logistic regression models. Among the participants, 289 (24.1%) had moderate and 352 (29.3%) had severe mental distress and 69.8% of children in their care had health issues. The number of caregivers with mental distress was more than double that reported during the 2016 national survey. After adjusting for covariates, child health issues increased among caregivers with moderate mental distress (odds ratio 2.24, 95% confidence interval 1.59–3.16) and severe mental distress (odds ratio 3.05, 95% confidence interval 2.17–4.29) compared with caregivers with no mental distress. The results highlight parents’ psychological stress during the pandemic, suggesting the need for adequate parenting support. However, our study did not consider risk factors of caregivers’ mental distress such as socioeconomic background. There is an urgent need for further research to identify vulnerable populations and children’s needs to develop sustainable social support programs for those affected by the outbreak.
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spelling pubmed-77282652020-12-17 Caregivers’ mental distress and child health during the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan Horiuchi, Sayaka Shinohara, Ryoji Otawa, Sanae Akiyama, Yuka Ooka, Tadao Kojima, Reiji Yokomichi, Hiroshi Miyake, Kunio Yamagata, Zentaro PLoS One Research Article To clarify the physical and mental conditions of children during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and consequent social distancing in relation to the mental condition of their caregivers. This internet-based nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted between April 30 and May 13, 2020. The participants were 1,200 caregivers of children aged 3–14 years. Child health issues were categorized into “at least one” or “none” according to caregivers’ perception. Caregivers’ mental status was assessed using the Japanese version of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale-6. The association between caregivers’ mental status and child health issues was analyzed using logistic regression models. Among the participants, 289 (24.1%) had moderate and 352 (29.3%) had severe mental distress and 69.8% of children in their care had health issues. The number of caregivers with mental distress was more than double that reported during the 2016 national survey. After adjusting for covariates, child health issues increased among caregivers with moderate mental distress (odds ratio 2.24, 95% confidence interval 1.59–3.16) and severe mental distress (odds ratio 3.05, 95% confidence interval 2.17–4.29) compared with caregivers with no mental distress. The results highlight parents’ psychological stress during the pandemic, suggesting the need for adequate parenting support. However, our study did not consider risk factors of caregivers’ mental distress such as socioeconomic background. There is an urgent need for further research to identify vulnerable populations and children’s needs to develop sustainable social support programs for those affected by the outbreak. Public Library of Science 2020-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7728265/ /pubmed/33301517 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243702 Text en © 2020 Horiuchi et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Horiuchi, Sayaka
Shinohara, Ryoji
Otawa, Sanae
Akiyama, Yuka
Ooka, Tadao
Kojima, Reiji
Yokomichi, Hiroshi
Miyake, Kunio
Yamagata, Zentaro
Caregivers’ mental distress and child health during the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan
title Caregivers’ mental distress and child health during the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan
title_full Caregivers’ mental distress and child health during the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan
title_fullStr Caregivers’ mental distress and child health during the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan
title_full_unstemmed Caregivers’ mental distress and child health during the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan
title_short Caregivers’ mental distress and child health during the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan
title_sort caregivers’ mental distress and child health during the covid-19 outbreak in japan
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7728265/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33301517
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243702
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