The relationships between ongoing COVID-19 lockdown and the financial and mental health experiences of Australian families

Abstract

ObjectivesAustralia’s public health restrictions (‘lockdown’) in 2020 successfully contained the spread of COVID-19. These included a national ‘initial’ lockdown (March-May), and ‘ongoing’ lockdown (July-November) for metropolitan Victorian residents only. Australia’s experience offers an opportunity to assess impacts of lockdown on families with children, in the relative absence of disease morbidity and mortality. This study (1) described the experience of initial lockdown and (2) evaluated the impact of ongoing lockdown, on family finances and mental health.MethodsData were drawn from the June and September 2020 Royal Children’s Hospital National Child Health Polls. Caregivers of children from the states of Victoria and New South Wales reported on job/income loss; material deprivation (inability to pay for essential items); income-poverty; mental health (Kessler-6); impact on caregiver/child mental health; and caregiver/child coping. Data from N=1207/902 caregivers in June/September were analyzed; Aim (1) with weighted descriptives; Aim (2) with Difference-in-Difference adjusted linear regression models (New South Wales provided the comparator).ResultsFollowing initial lockdown, one-quarter of families reported job/income loss; one-third reported material deprivation. Negative impacts on mental health were reported for half the caregivers and one-third of children. Few caregivers or children had difficulties coping. During Victoria’s ongoing lockdown, job/income loss increased by 11% (95%CI: 3-18%); Kessler-6 poor mental health by 6% (95%CI: 0.3-12%) and negative mental health impacts by 12% for caregivers (95%CI: 6-23%) and 14% for children (95%CI: 4-20%). Female (versus male) caregivers, metropolitan (versus regional/rural) families, and families with elementary school-aged children (versus pre-/high-school) were most affected.ConclusionsOngoing lockdown had negative impacts on mental health, employment, and income, but not deprivation or poverty, likely because of the government income supplements introduced early in the pandemic. Balancing the benefits and harms of lockdown requires planned responses to outbreaks, and evidence-informed financial and mental health supports.

Age-optimal vaccination strategy for respiratory infectious disease: a constraint-dependant approach

“…F I G U R E 1 Diagram of one age class dynamics subject to model (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10) where…”

“…Thereafter, people were constrained to nearly two years of trial and error before the vaccine implementation. Moreover, they were subject to the consequences of the lack of feedback on whatever strategy chosen for the vaccination 2 . This led the World Health Organization (WHO) to set a vaccination strategy that was applied in different countries across the world.…”