A prospective analysis of the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on well-being and health care among children with a high-risk chronic condition and their families

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Reinhard Holl; Professorin Dr. Kirsten Minden; Professorin Dr. Petra Warschburger
• Subject Area: Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine ; Endocrinology, Diabetology, Metabolism ; Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine ; Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology ; Rheumatology
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 459056379

The Corona pandemic has led to changes in the medical care of children and adolescents. Children and adolescents with a chronic disease are particularly vulnerable, as they are dependent on regular health services on the one hand and at higher risk for a severe course of COVID-19 on the other hand. In an interdisciplinary research program, the short- and long-term consequences of the pandemic on these children and adolescents will be examined with respect to changes in medical care as well as their physical and mental health. We focus on children and adolescents (aged up to 18 yrs) with three common chronic diseases, type 1 diabetes, obesity, and rheumatic diseases. Patients and their parents will be asked about their physical and mental health, their use of health services and their COVID-19-related stress as part of their participation in the three large established patient registries: diabetes prospective follow-up registry (DPV; N=77,413), prospective registry for overweight and obese children and adolescents (APV; N=124,130) and national pediatric rheumatology database (N=14,000). The already existing health parameters in the registers will be extended by patient reports on their psychosocial situation by a corona-specific questionnaire. In addition, the psychosocial resources and risk perceptions of children and their parents will be recorded and their influence on the use of health services as well as on their physical and mental health will be analyzed.The prospective design allows the analysis of interindividual differences and its influencing factors. By accessing already existing prospectively collected data sets of the three patient registers, changes in the medical care and health status of the children can be examined over time, i.e. before and during the pandemic.In addition, an extended psychosocial survey is carried out in a subsample. We will consecutively include all children and adolescents who take part in their routine examinations within one year, have already agreed to participate in the patient register and gave their informed consent to an additional survey. Parents provide information for children under the age of 12, for older children self-reports will also be collected.The overall aim of the project group is to identify and evaluate the medical care situation and the physical and mental health of children and adolescents with chronic diseases (main endpoints) as well as their interactions during the pandemic. This allows identifying differences and commonalities in the effects of the pandemic on the care and health of children of different diseases. Recommendations for further care practices can be derived.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants