Caregiver stress lessened after pandemic lockdowns lifted, study finds

News brief

A study based on a national survey in Australia shows caregiver and parental stress during the pandemic lessened in 2022 and 2023 after lockdowns were lifted, but female caregivers reported more stress throughout the 3-year study.

The study was published today in Pediatrics and is based on responses to Australia’s National Child Health Poll, which was conducted across six waves from June 2020 to April 2023. A total of 12,408 caregivers and 20,339 children aged 0 to 17 years participated in the poll.

Caregivers were asked to report mental health for themselves and each child, as well as perceived impacts of the pandemic on their own and their children's mental health (negative versus none/positive).

Peak of distress was summer 2021

Three surveys were conducted during Australia's lockdowns, which occurred until October 2021. Those surveys were followed by three surveys given in the post-lockdown period, beginning in April 2022.

The peak of negative mental health reporting for both children and caregivers was July 2021. Seventeen percent to 20% of caregivers reported poor mental health in the lockdown periods of 2020-2021, compared to 12% to 14% in 2022-2023. From June 2020 to July 2021, caregivers reported that 6% to 13% of children had poor or fair mental health, with that percentage reducing to 6% in April 2023.

"Perceived negative mental health impacts were more commonly reported by female than male caregivers," the authors said.

Perceived negative mental health impacts were more commonly reported by female than male caregivers.

Sole caregivers reported double the levels of poor mental health self-ratings compared with multicaregiver households. Speaking a language other than English in the home and having lower education status were also linked to worse mental health during the lockdown periods.

"This study is 1 of the first to investigate mental health during the postlockdown period, and shows significant recovery for Australian families," the authors concluded. "Despite this level of resilience, there remain inequities, not unlike the prepandemic distribution of mental health disorders."

Dip in alcohol consumption in early pandemic linked to less social drinking

News brief

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

With the closures of indoor dining, bars, theaters, and concert venues in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, heavy drinking young adults found themselves consuming 13 less drinks per month compared to pre-pandemic months, according to a new study in the journal Nature Mental Health.

Moreover, this decline in consumption was still evident in 2022 after the initial pandemic restrictions had ended.

"These results highlight the social nature of drinking and speak to the importance of the social context in driving drinking behavior," said Aidan Wright, PhD, of the University of Michigan in a press release from Carnegie Mellon.

These results highlight the social nature of drinking and speak to the importance of the social context in driving drinking behavior.

The protective study followed study prospectively examined the drinking patterns of 234 heavy-drinking young adults ages 21 to 29 years. Participants were asked about their drinking habits every six months from February 2018 to March 2022.

Heavy drinkers were those who said they consumed four (women) or five (men) drinks in one sitting at least 4 times per month.

Slight increase in solitary drinking

The authors said the drop in number of drinks consumed each month was largely driven by significant decreases in weekend (versus weekday) drinking quantity and frequency and drinks per drinking day.

Solitary drinking did increase by 4% during the first year of the pandemic. But the study authors suggested this finding was reflective of the limitations on social drinking.

"Drinking to cope is the main reason young people engage in solitary drinking," said Kasey. "But in this study, we actually saw a decrease in drinking to cope motives along with decreases in negative affectivity, so we think this increase in solitary drinking is less of a signal of something problematic happening and more a result of pandemic-related restrictions on social drinking settings."

Illinois officials announce CWD detection in another county

News brief

Mary Van Beusekom, MS

White-tailed deer eating leaves — Stephen Horvath / Flickr cc

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) yesterday announced that chronic wasting disease (CWD) has spread to Ford County, in the northern part of the state.

Officials confirmed that a wild deer exhibiting signs of CWD tested positive for the fatal prion disease in mid-March. A total of 21 counties in northern and northeastern Illinois have reported cases since it was first identified in Winnebago County in 2002.

The IDNR said it is scheduling public meetings to discuss the state's CWD management strategies and answer questions.

"Current management efforts include encouraging hunter harvest and testing of deer in counties with confirmed cases of CWD, targeted removal in CWD infection zones to slow the spread of the disease, and ongoing statewide CWD surveillance in counties where CWD has not been detected," officials said in a news release.

Hunters shouldn't eat infected meat

CWD, a neurologic disease caused by misfolded proteins called prions, affects cervids such as deer, elk, moose, and reindeer. The disease poses an ongoing threat to cervids, given that CWD can spread from animal to animal and through environmental contamination.

It isn't known to infect humans, but officials recommend that hunters not eat meat from a sick animal and use precautions when field-dressing or butchering cervids.