Authors (including presenting author) :
LEE CK (1), HUIBONHOA JY(2), LAM M (2), NG R (2), CHAN PLK (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Psychiatry, Queen Mary Hospital, (2) The Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists
Introduction :
Hong Kong has been experiencing waves of turmoil since the social unrest in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic (COVID). Amongst groups that are affected, parents are uniquely influenced by a multitude of factors: the unanticipated stress from managing their children and their online learning at home during school suspension, practice of new infection control measures in the changing epidemiological situations, let alone the volatile political and socio-economic environment.
Objectives :
To estimate the burden of mental health problems among parents of primary and secondary school children and to discern the COVID and social unrest-related factors associated with them.
Methodology :
This is a self-administered, voluntary, and anonymous questionnaire survey available online. The outcome measures were probable diagnoses of depression, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by scoring over 10 in the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), 7-item General Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) and 33 in the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) respectively. Independent variables were demographic data, exposure to traumatic events in social unrest and COVID and their impact on life. This study was conducted in collaboration with the Care4all programme initiated by the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists. Access to psychiatric consultation of the Care4all programme with results of the outcome measures were made available to the respondents at the end of the survey.
Result & Outcome :
A total of 1238 parents from 8 primary and 13 secondary schools participated in the survey in June to October 2020. One in five of the parents of primary school children (142/639, 22%) and one in six of those of secondary school students (98/599, 16%) were screened to have met criteria of at least one psychiatric disorder (p< 0.05). Among them, half (52%) had met criteria for more than 1 disorders. Significant factors related to any probable psychiatric diagnosis were mistrust towards others due to social unrest, arguments with friends, colleagues, family and others in public due to social unrest, reduced leisure and increased workload from social unrest, perceived vulnerability of getting and seriousness of COVID, difficulty in obtaining daily necessities and personal protective equipment and arguments with family during COVID.
High level of probable psychiatric disorders were seen in parents, especially those with primary school children. Timely school-based interventions to facilitate care and promote mental well-being of parents should be considered.
