Publication date: Oct 01, 2024

Little is known about changes in depression screening outcomes among adolescents in primary healthcare across the COVID-19 pandemic. We describe trends in depression screening outcomes within a large integrated health care system in Southern California. Retrospective electronic health record data from preventative healthcare visits of 11-12-year-olds and 13-17-year-olds screened for depression from March 1, 2017, to August 31, 2022, were extracted in 6-month blocks. The percentages of screens meeting “threshold depression” were reported overall, and by sex, race or ethnicity, and median household income quintiles. We used Poisson regression to estimate rate ratios of threshold depression in 3 winter blocks (September to February) comparing lockdown (2020), reopening (2021) to a pre-COVID (2019) period, and reopening relative to lockdown. Disparities in trends by sex, race, or ethnicity and household income were tested using interaction terms. Of 735,333 visits with complete screening (183,550 for 11-12-year-olds and 551,783 for 13-17-year-olds), 4. 6%, 6. 5%, and 7. 4% of 11-12-year-olds had “threshold depression” during winter blocks of pre-COVID, lockdown and reopening, respectively. The corresponding rates were 5. 8%, 8. 5%, and 9. 8% for 13-17-year-olds. The rates were higher during lockdown and reopening relative to pre-COVID and higher during reopening relative to lockdown for both age groups (all p-values

Semantics

Original Article