Immunosuppressed children and young people, psychosocial wellbeing, and the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract Purpose: Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, research highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the psychosocial wellbeing of children and young people (CYP). The long-term consequences of the pandemic on clinically vulnerable CYP is however unclear. This study aims to describe the psychosocial experiences of immunosuppressed CYP while Britain moved from the COVID-19 pandemic to epidemic. Methods: We invited 1021 CYP participating in the ImmunoCOVID-19 study to complete a mental wellbeing survey in November/December 2021, January/February 2022, and March/April 2022, 467 accepted the invitation. At these 3 timepoints we assessed health-related quality of life (HRQOL) using the Kidscreen-27 and mood using the positive and negative affect scale. A linear mixed model repeated measure approach was used to analyse this prospective cohort data. Results: At the first 2 timepoints, the COVID-19 pandemic timepoints, the CYP reported HRQOL levels that were noticeably lower compared to pre-COVID-19 norm levels. However, as the immunosuppressed CYP moved towards the COVID-19 epidemic, HRQOL levels significantly increased and negative mood decreased, indicating that these CYP were recovering from the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on their psychosocial wellbeing. Our findings confirmed early pandemic findings indicating that younger children were less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and that individuals living in low-income households were more affected by the pandemic. Moreover, parental anxiety and/or depression decreased CYP’s psychosocial wellbeing. Conclusion: Health care provided to immunosuppressed CYP should include family guidance and interventions to support not only the psychosocial wellbeing of the paediatric patients but also other family members.