PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Pasli, Melisa
AU  - Tumin, Dmitry
TI  - Children’s Special Health Care Needs and Caregivers’ Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic
AID  - 10.3122/jabfm.2022.220406R2
DP  - 2023 Sep 29
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
PG  - jabfm.2022.220406R2
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/early/2023/09/29/jabfm.2022.220406R2.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/early/2023/09/29/jabfm.2022.220406R2.full
AB  - Background: Caregivers of children with special health care needs (SHCN) report worse self-rated health when compared with caregivers of children without SHCN and have experienced significant stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to determine whether COVID-19 pandemic-era declines in well-being among caregivers of children with SHCN were steeper than among caregivers of children without SHCN.Methods: We used 2020 to 2021 (pandemic-era, n = 89,560) and 2018 to 2019 (pre-pandemic, n = 57,927) data from the National Survey of Children’s Health. Caregiver-reported physical and mental health outcomes were analyzed using multivariable ordinal logistic regression.Results: The pandemic era was associated with 26% higher odds of reporting worse mental health among caregivers of children with SHCN (95% confidence interval [CI]: +16%, +38%), and 20% higher odds of reporting worse mental health among caregivers of children without SHCN (95% CI: +15%, +26%). The magnitudes of these changes were not significantly different from one another (P = .341).Conclusions: Although caregivers of children with SHCN faced significant burdens and increased stress during the pandemic, decline in self-rated mental health among this group was similar to the trend seen among caregivers of children without SHCN.