Price Anna M H, Measey Mary-Anne, Goldfeld Sharon, Rhodes Anthea
Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Population Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2024 Dec 2;15:e31. doi: 10.1017/S2040174424000321.
Household income and caregiver mental health are important drivers of children's health and development. The COVID-19 pandemic created huge economic and mental health disruptions. This study examines financial hardship and its relationship with caregiver and child mental health using Australia's only representative data spanning three years of the pandemic. Analysis of the repeated, cross-sectional National Child Health Poll included 12,408 caregivers and 20,339 children over six waves (June 2020-April 2023). Caregivers reported their income (dichotomised into low versus not) and deprivation (missing one or more of eight essential items, versus not) and mental health for themselves (Kessler-6, poor versus not) and each child (Self-Rated Mental Health, poor/fair versus good/very good/excellent). Binary logistic models were fitted to predict marginal probabilities of mental health measures by low income and deprivation, over time. Results show that while low income decreased from 41% to 34% over the study period, deprivation increased from 30% to 35%. Poor mental health peaked with stay-at-home orders in 2021 before recovering. Caregivers experiencing low income or deprivation had higher rates of poor mental health throughout the study and slower recovery compared to those without financial hardship. Children in families experiencing financial hardship had slightly higher proportions of poor/fair mental health in 2021-2022, but they were mostly equivalent in June 2020 and April 2023 (range 6-8%). Addressing financial hardship may offer an avenue for improving caregiver mental health. This has implications for post-pandemic recovery and addressing contemporary issues of increasing cost of living and limited mental health supports and services.
家庭收入和照顾者的心理健康是儿童健康与发展的重要驱动因素。新冠疫情造成了巨大的经济和心理健康破坏。本研究利用澳大利亚唯一一项涵盖疫情三年的代表性数据，考察了经济困难及其与照顾者和儿童心理健康的关系。对重复进行的全国儿童健康调查的横断面分析涵盖了六轮调查（2020年6月至2023年4月）中的12408名照顾者和20339名儿童。照顾者报告了他们的收入（分为低收入和非低收入）、贫困状况（缺少八项基本物品中的一项或多项与未缺少）以及他们自己的心理健康状况（用凯斯勒心理困扰量表-6，差与不差）和每个孩子的心理健康状况（自评心理健康，差/一般与好/非常好/优秀）。采用二元逻辑模型来预测随着时间推移低收入和贫困状况下心理健康指标的边际概率。结果显示，在研究期间，低收入比例从41%降至34%，而贫困比例从30%升至35%。心理健康状况差在2021年居家令期间达到峰值，随后有所恢复。在整个研究过程中，与没有经济困难的照顾者相比，经历低收入或贫困的照顾者心理健康状况差的发生率更高，恢复也更慢。在2021 - 2022年，经历经济困难家庭中的儿童心理健康状况差/一般的比例略高，但在2020年6月和2023年4月大多相当（范围为6 - 8%）。解决经济困难可能为改善照顾者心理健康提供一条途径。这对疫情后恢复以及应对生活成本上升和心理健康支持与服务有限等当代问题具有启示意义。
