We completed the collection of data from the study of confinement, COVID19 and maternal and child mental health within BiSC (MOOD-COVID)

The MOOD-COVID study studies the effects of COVID19 confinement and pandemic on maternal and child health within the BiSC population and is funded by the AXA Research Fund.

To obtain the data, during the confinement of March to June 2020, 5 successive surveys were conducted on the participants of the BiSC study. One year later, in June 2021, the final campaign was conducted with the submission of a final survey to study changes in mental health.

Participation during confinement was quite high. In the June 2021 survey (survey 6) 68% of participants answered a year ago (survey 5) (see Figure 1), which is a considerable percentage, especially after a complicated year of pandemic. In addition, in survey 5 we contacted and 82 couples participated. We are very grateful and grateful to the participants for their response, without which it would not be possible to do this project and advance in knowledge to improve maternal and child health.

Next steps:

Now that we have collected all the data, the following steps are:

– Review the data obtained from the last survey.

– Prepare an individual report of mental health responses for participants. (Note: it should be noted that the questions in the mental health questionnaire are indicative and in no way have diagnostic validity).

– Link the data from the last survey with those from a year ago to make the final analyzes.

Analysis:

The final analyzes consist of:

1) To study the factors of confinement and pandemic, including socioeconomic, housing and family situations, which are related to increased psychological stress, anxiety, depression and also post-traumatic stress in mothers.

2) To study how maternal health during the pandemic can affect the neurodevelopment of children participating in BiSC.

3) Publish the results in scientific journals and disseminate knowledge.

Publication and communication of results:

Once we have analyzed the results, we will write the articles and send it to scientific journals for consideration and publication. This process is slow but essential to ensure the validity of the results. Later, we will be able to communicate and disseminate the conclusions of the project.

And last but not least, thank you again to the study volunteers and their families for their participation !!!

The text has been written by Maria Foraster, a researcher of the BiSC project.