COVID triggers depression, anxiety among children in Kashmir: Research
Over 16 percent of school-going children in Srinagar had a prevalence of depression, while 20 percent had anxiety during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The information was revealed in a research journal, “Prevalence of depression and anxiety among school-going adolescents in Kashmir during COVID-19 pandemic,” co-authored by four doctors at the Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar. The doctors include Dr. Ruqia Quansar (Corresponding author), Dr. Asif Jeelani, Dr. Sabira Aalia Dkhar, Dr. S Muhammad Salim Khan, Professor and HOD, Community Medicine, GMC Srinagar.
The research journal has been published in Middle East Current Psychiatry.
Dr. Ruqia Quansar said, “We had prepared a questionnaire, and randomly over 20 schools were selected in Srinagar. Whereas, in those schools, a nodal officer provided a Google forum link through which the students submitted their response”.
She added, “The Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents and Generalized Anxiety Disorder questionnaire were used to screen for depression and anxiety among school-going adolescents between 15 and 19 years during January and February 2021”.
“The questionnaire consisted of three parts; the first part contained questions for socio-demographic profile, past personal diagnosis of COVID-19, history of quarantine, history of COVID-19 diagnosis, and hospital admission in the family,” Dr. said.
“Self-reported weight, height, and duration of physical activity were also recorded. The second part consisted of the English version of the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-9A), and the third part consisted of the English version of Generalized Anxiety Disorder questionnaire (GAD-7)”, Dr. Quansar said.
Out of the 439 adolescents who had responded, 426 (97.03%) were included in final analysis, she added.
Adding that, she said that the adolescents had a mean age of 17.5 + 1.26 years and comprised of 57% males while the overall prevalence of depression was 16% and was associated with a past history of COVID-19 infection.
“Anxiety was present in 20% of adolescents. The prevalence was 14% for boys and 27.5% for girls. On logistic regression, Anxiety was associated with female gender, past history of personal COVID-19 infection, history of COVID-19 diagnosis in family and hospital admission due to COVID-19 in the family”, Dr. Quansar said.
The present study was conceptualized to estimate the prevalence of depression and Anxiety and its determinants among school-going adolescents in the Kashmir valley of India, she added.
She further said that Anxiety and depression are major public health problems among adolescents. The high burden estimated in our study highlights the need for immediate action to support adolescents, particularly those with a self/family history of COVID-19.
