Determinants of adolescents’ Health-Related Quality of Life and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic

  1. Roxane Dumont
  2. Viviane Richard
  3. Hélène Baysson
  4. Elsa Lorthe
  5. Giovanni Piumatti
  6. Stephanie Schrempft
  7. Ania Wisniak
  8. Rémy P. Barbe
  9. Klara M. Posfay-Barbe
  10. Idris Guessous
  11. Silvia Stringhini
  12. on behalf of the Specchio-COVID19 study group

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Abstract

We examined the determinants of adolescents’ Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and psychological distress (self-reported and parent-reported) during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a random sample of the population of Geneva, Switzerland.

Methods

Data was drawn from participants aged 14–17 years, who participated with their families to a serosurvey conducted in November and December 2020. Adolescents’ HRQoL was evaluated using the validated adolescent-reported KIDSCREEN-10 and parent-reported KINDL ® scales. Psychological distress was assessed with self-reported sadness and loneliness, and using the KINDL ® emotional well-being scale. Using generalized estimating equations, we examined the role of socio-demographic, family and behavioural characteristics in influencing adolescents’ mental health status and wellbeing.

Results

Among 240 adolescents, 11% had a low HRQoL, 35% reported sadness and 23% reported loneliness. Based on parents’ perception, 12% of the adolescents had a low HRQoL and 16% a low emotional well-being. Being a girl (aOR = 3.20; 95%CI: 1.67–6.16), increased time on social media (aOR = 2.07; 95%CI: 1.08–3.97), parents’ average to poor mood (aOR = 2.62; 95%CI: 1.10–6.23) and average to poor household financial situation (aOR = 2.31; IC95%: 1.01–6.10) were associated with an increased risk of sadness. Mismatches between adolescents’ and their parents’ perception of HRQoL were more likely for girls ( aOR = 2.88; 95%CI: 1.54–5.41) and in households with lower family well-being (aOR = 0.91; 95%CI: 0.86–0.96 ).

Conclusions

A meaningful proportion of adolescents experienced low well-being during the second wave of COVID-19, and average well-being was lower than pre-pandemic estimates. Adolescents living in underprivileged or distressed families seemed particularly affected . Monitoring is necessary to evaluate the long-term effects of the pandemic on adolescents.

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  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0272925
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.09.20.21263812: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    RandomizationChildren and adolescents aged 6 months to 17 years were randomly selected from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office’s registers and were invited with their family members for a free anti-SARS-CoV-2 serology.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line AuthenticationAuthentication: Measures: HRQoL and psychological distress - adolescent’s perception: HRQoL as perceived by the adolescents was evaluated over the previous week using the validated French version of the standardized KIDSCREEN-10 scale [16].

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    The study presents several limitations. First, it is a cross-sectional study relying on self-reported data, without any pre-pandemic hindsight coming from the same sample. It does not allow us to firmly conclude whether the reported adolescents’ low quality of life is caused by the pandemic. The sample size is quite small, which limited statistical power. Finally, though randomly invited, study participants come from a higher socioeconomic background than the Geneva population. As a consequence, estimates of low well-being and psychological distress may have been underestimated. This study also presents several strengths. First, it relies on a randomly selected population-based sample. Thanks to the family-based design, data comes from both adolescents and their parents, which enables comparisons of both perceptions. Furthermore, previous SARS-CoV-2 infection is assessed with an objective measure. Finally, the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the sample are assessed through a wide range of indicators, at the individual and household levels.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.09.20.21263812v1 on medRxiv