Systematic review of anxiety and depression symptom prevalence before and during COVID-19 pandemic in children and adolescents

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Stelya Marusska Diniz Côrte-Real Martins
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/33062
• topic: Anxiety; Depression; Prevalence; Systematic review; COVID-19 pandemic; Children and adolescents

Child and adolescent mental health during COVID-19 pandemic requires special attention, as they are a vulnerable population. Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses suggest a worsening of anxiety and depression symptoms in children and adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic, however, they resort to combined prevalence that may not translate into clinical significance, as they assume equal prevalence for both. Additionally, results from individual studies are inconsistent. The current research aimed to assess the difference (diff) between prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in children and adolescents aged 3 to 18 years. A systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. A literature search was carried out in PubMed for studies published between March 2020 and July 2021 that reported the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms in this population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initial database search identified 251 articles, with 8 studies included (7 cross-sectional and 1 longitudinal) conducted in 5 countries (China, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland) meeting inclusion criteria. Most analyzed comparisons between studies suggest a worsening trend of anxiety and depression symptoms during the pandemic. One comparison showed an opposite trend for both anxiety and depression symptoms. Only a small number of articles (n=8) matched the inclusion criteria. Causality and direction of found associations can only be assumed from one analyzed longitudinal study. Methodological issues, risk and protective factors, limitations and future directions have been discussed.