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Tracking the mental health toll of COVID-19 on mothers, young women and adolescent girls

March 4, 2024

Researchers find that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased mental health visits for all three groups

Content Warning: This article mentions eating disorders.

By Chloe Panganiban

Two new studies supported by the Institute for Pandemics (IfP) show that the implementation of non-pharmaceutical public health measures were associated with increased mental health visits for mothers with young children, young women, and adolescent girls.

As a response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world imposed public health measures to reduce viral transmission, including stay-at-home orders, travel restrictions, and school closures. Such interventions raised concerns about their potential lasting impact on the mental health of individuals, especially in vulnerable and at-risk populations.

Specific populations of concern were mothers, young women, and adolescent girls. Previous research has demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic had a larger impact on the mental health of women compared to that of men.

Particularly, mothers with young children faced specific obstacles related to parenting and caregiving, while young women and adolescent girls experienced major disruptions to school, social, and daily routines.

The new studies aimed to examine how these pandemic-related non-pharmaceutical interventions have impacted the mental health of these groups.

The multidisciplinary team was led by Geoffrey Anderson, a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), and lead of the Pandemic Recovery theme for the Institute for Pandemics.

The team also included: John Moin, a former postdoctoral fellow funded by IfP; Shauna Brail, a professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga who directs the Institute for Management & Innovation; and Simone Vigod, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and head of the Department of Psychiatry at Women’s College Hospital.

Both studies compared rates of doctor visits for mental health care in the pre-pandemic period from March 2016 to March 2020 to rates during the pandemic from April 2020 to November 2021.

The first, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) Open, found a rapid increase in doctor visits by mothers of young children for mental health care during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period with most of the care for mood, anxiety, and depressive disorders, and alcohol and substance abuse.

In the second study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open, the team found an increase in doctor visits for women aged 14 to 24 for mental health care largely driven by care for mood, anxiety, and depressive disorders. Additionally, there was an increase in hospital visits for eating disorders for women aged 14 to 19. There was no increase in doctor visits or hospitalizations for boys or young men.

Both studies show that the implementation of public health measures during the pandemic was associated with increased usage of mental health services among mothers of young children, young women, and adolescent girls.

“Our research raises concerns about the mental health impacts of public health measures on vulnerable women,” says Anderson. “We need to address these impacts as a key part of any effective and equitable pandemic recovery strategy and we need to pay more attention to these consequences in future public health crises”.

The findings also point to potential lessons for future public health crises.

John Moin (left), a former postdoctoral fellow the Dalla Lana School of Public Health’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), and his supervisor Professor Geoffrey Anderson (right) are among the co-authors of two new studies that trace the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of mothers, young women and adolescent girls. (Photos courtesy John Moin and Geoffrey Anderson)

"We saw the rapid and ongoing application of non-pharmaceutical interventions as public health measures throughout the pandemic,” says Moin, lead author of both studies. “We also now know that they were associated with abrupt and prolonged changes in the utilization of mental health services. This association should be considered for future public health planning and strategy.”

Renzo Calderon, another post-doctoral fellow funded by IfP and supervised by Anderson, is leading a team that continues to delve deeper into this observed trend.

Despite nearly four years having passed since the beginning of the restrictions, the pandemic has permanently altered the landscape of mental health. The current focus is not solely on exploring the overarching trends but also on better understanding if there are specific socio-demographic groups of women who were particularly affected.

Preliminary results indicate that the demand for mental health services on specific issues such as eating disorders and substance abuse, especially among young women, has not diminished.

This targeted approach aims to uncover nuanced insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these problems, offers a clearer understanding of the challenges, and could lead towards more effective interventions.