Mental health prevalence and care access among U.S. adolescentsduring the COVID-19pandemic: Results from the National Survey of Children’s Health

Objectives : The growing mental health problems among children and adolescents’ countries to be a public health concern in the US. And such concerning trend was exacerbated by the COVIVD-19 pandemic and has led to a mental health crisis among the youth. Using a national representative sample, we accessed the impact of COVID-9 on mental health and access to mental health care access among adolescents. Methods: Data were taken from the 2019 and 2022 National Survey of Children’s health (NSCH), an annually collected survey on the health and well-being of the children in the U.S..A total of 31,258 teenagers ages 12-17 years were included in this analysis. The two main outcomes were (1) mental health problems (yes/no), and (2) mental healthcare access (yes/no) in the past 12 months. We ran separate multiple logistic regression models to assess the changes in mental health problems and access to mental health care from 2019 to 2022. Results: Overall, our results indicated a higher prevalence of mental health problems was reported in teenagers in 2022 (30.6% 95% CI: 29.4-31.9%) than in 2019 (26.9%, 25.2-28.6%) (p=0.001). In the mental health problems model, adolescents who are “Non-Hispanic Black”, “parents with higher education levels” and those “who experience childhood adverse events” were found more likely to have mental health problems (all p<.001); In the access to mental healthcare model, we found that adolescents girls were more likely to have got access to mental health care than boys (AOR=2.15, 95% CI:1.80-2.58). Adolescents from “families with higher income”, “with insurance coverage”, “with adverse childhood experiences”, “living in the neighborhood with more amenities and “living in urban areas” were more likely to have accessed mental health care than their counterparts. (all p<0.05). Conclusions : We found the prevalence of mental health problems in children increased while the prevalence of access to mental health care decreased from 2019 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend should be closely monitored. And special efforts are needed to help those children who are affected.