Pediatric Mental Health Care Visits Increased During COVID-19 Pandemic

Mental health care visits among children and adolescents increased beyond expected levels during the COVID-19 pandemic following an initial decrease, according to the results of a recent study. The majority of these visits were delivered virtually.

To better understand the relationship between mental health care utilization, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the use of virtual visits, the researchers conducted a population-based cross-sectional study.

Included was a population of 2.5 million children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years in Ontario, Canada. All included individuals were part of linked health and administrative databases and lived in Ontario for the duration of the study period. The study period was divided into a pre-COVID-19 period (January 1, 2017, to February 29, 2020) and a post-COVID-19-onset period (March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021).

The results indicated that visit rates had declined rapidly to below expected levels from the pandemic onset to April 2020, before increasing to above-expected levels by July 2020. As of February 2021, visit rates continued to be 10% to 15% above expected levels. The greatest increase of mental health visit rates relative to expected by the end of the study period was among adolescent girls.

The weekly rate of mental health outpatient visits was 6.9 per 1000 population. Of the mental health visits during the study period, 72.5% of them were conducted virtually (5.0 visits per 1000 population). Virtual mental health visits were the highest at 90.1% of visits (5.3 visits per 1000 population) in April 2020, before decreasing to approximately 70%.

“Physician-based outpatient mental health care in Ontario increased during the pandemic, accompanied by a large, rapid shift to virtual care,” the researchers concluded. “There was a disproportionate increase in use of mental health care services among adolescent female individuals. System-level planning to address the increasing capacity needs and to monitor quality of care with such large shifts is warranted.

—Leigh Precopio

Reference:

Saunders NR, Kurdyak P, Stukel TA, et al. Utilization of physician-based mental health care services among children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada. JAMA Pediatr. Published online February 7, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.6298