ABSTRACT
Introduction: Millions around the globe were directly or indirectly affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 epidemic has harmed the lives of children with special needs in many ways, whether directly or in-directly. Few studies have evaluated the Impact of covid-19 lockdown among children with disability. Howev-er, the Impact of COVID on parents dealing with special children was scarcely studied in detail. Investigating parental stress, worries, and morbidity during the lockdown is particularly important for assisting these parents during further outbreaks. The aim is to assess the Impact of covid-19 lockdown among parents handling disabled children, parenting stress, their concerns, and morbidity during the COVID-19 lockdown. Materials And Method: The study was done among the parents of disabled children attending special schools in Chennai, using a cross-sectional study design. Parents with any recent trauma, mental disorders, or major diseases and undergoing treatment for themselves were excluded. After obtaining ethics approval, a semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess the Impact of the covid-19 lockdown. Collected data were ana-lyzed using SPSS v.21. Results: The study includes 305 parents, predominantly mothers (58%) and the mean age was 38.9+8.2 years. We observed that the COVID-19 lockdown impacted 149 parents (48.9%). The significant predictors for the Impact of COVID-19 lockdown were being a single parent [AOR-2.91(95%CI-1.05-8.08)] and having a part-time job [AOR-0.36(95%CI-0.14-0.93)]. Conclusion: The COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown significantly impacted the parents of disabled children. It is high time we give importance to these parents of children with special needs during this pandemic to help them during similar occasions in the future. © 2023, MedSci Publications. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The home confinement imposed due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has disproportionally affected the lives of children around the globe, particularly children with pre-existing vulnerabilities. The study assessed the impact of home confinement and the associated risk factors among disabled children residing in the Chennai district, during the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: The list of special schools in Chennai were collected, and five special schools were randomly chosen by lottery method. Using simple random sampling technique children were selected till the required sample size of 189 was reached. Semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Informed consent was obtained, and data was entered in MS Excel and analyzed by SPSS version 22. Results: Among the study participants around 64% had an impact due to home confinement during the covid lockdown. Statistically significant predictors (p-value <0.05) of home confinement due to Covid-19 were anger & frustration (AOR-6.47, 95% CI – 2.5-12.6), increased crying among children (AOR-4.89 95% CI – 1.78.5) and sleep disturbances (AOR-2.92, 95% CI – 1.8-7.1). Conclusion: Increased care and attention needs to be provided to disabled children as they are more prone to get affected due to lockdown restrictions. © The Authors retain the copyrights of this article, with first publication rights granted to Medsci Publications.