Woodward Melissa L, Wolsey Morgan W, Shalchy-Tabrizi Sophia, Bone Jeffrey N, Black Tyler, Doan Quynh
Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
British Columbia Children's Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 8;20(8):e0329898. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0329898. eCollection 2025.
The pediatric mental health crisis pre-dated the COVID 19 pandemic with rates of mental health visits to pediatric emergency departments steadily increasing for the last decade. The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted children and adolescents and understanding the trajectory of their psychosocial status is important for appropriate resource allocation and policy planning.
MyHEARTSMAP is a digital self-assessment mental health evaluation that examines four major psychosocial domains: psychiatry, social, function, and youth health. Children and adolescents throughout British Columbia, and their guardians, completed the baseline assessment between August 2020 and July 2021 (51.8% completed by guardian only, 40.2% youth and guardians, 7.9% youth only). Both children and their guardians repeated the MyHEARTSMAP evaluation three-months after their baseline. Patient demographics and psychosocial concerns were statistically described and compared between baseline and follow-up. A logistic regression model assessed the influence of baseline scores and demographic factors on follow-up severity.
241 of 424 participants (56.8%) completed both the baseline and three-month follow-up. The majority of participants reported no change overtime across the psychosocial domains. Both improvement and decline occurred in each domain, with a greater proportion of psychosocial states improving rather than worsening, for all domains. Higher severity of psychosocial concerns reported at baseline indicated a greater likelihood of psychosocial concerns at 3-month follow-up for psychiatric, social and function concerns. Demographic, pandemic, and support service variables were not associated with psychosocial trajectories.
The severity of youth mental health concerns in British Columbia remained consistent through three-month follow up, despite the changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic during this period. Greater persistence of psychosocial concerns with increased severity highlights the need for early intervention to prevent worsening mental health. Community support is needed for youth experiencing mental health concerns to address mild psychosocial concerns before presentation at the emergency department.
儿科心理健康危机在新冠疫情之前就已存在，在过去十年里，儿科急诊科心理健康就诊率稳步上升。新冠疫情对儿童和青少年产生了深远影响，了解他们心理社会状况的发展轨迹对于合理分配资源和制定政策规划至关重要。
MyHEARTSMAP是一种数字自我评估心理健康评估工具，可检查四个主要的心理社会领域：精神病学、社交、功能和青少年健康。不列颠哥伦比亚省的儿童和青少年及其监护人在2020年8月至2021年7月期间完成了基线评估（51.8%仅由监护人完成，40.2%由青少年和监护人完成，7.9%仅由青少年完成）。儿童及其监护人在基线评估三个月后再次进行MyHEARTSMAP评估。对患者的人口统计学和心理社会问题进行了统计描述，并在基线和随访之间进行了比较。一个逻辑回归模型评估了基线分数和人口统计学因素对随访严重程度的影响。
424名参与者中有241名（56.8%）完成了基线评估和三个月的随访。大多数参与者报告说，随着时间的推移，心理社会领域没有变化。每个领域都出现了改善和下降的情况，所有领域中心理社会状态改善的比例大于恶化的比例。基线时报告的心理社会问题严重程度越高，表明在三个月随访时出现精神病学、社交和功能问题的心理社会问题可能性越大。人口统计学、疫情和支持服务变量与心理社会轨迹无关。
尽管在此期间新冠疫情的性质不断变化，但不列颠哥伦比亚省青少年心理健康问题的严重程度在三个月的随访中保持一致。心理社会问题的持续存在且严重程度增加，凸显了早期干预以防止心理健康恶化的必要性。需要社区为有心理健康问题的青少年提供支持，以便在他们前往急诊科之前解决轻微的心理社会问题。
