Paola Mattey-Mora
Paola Mattey-Mora is a Ph.D. candidate in Epidemiology, with a minor degree in Neuroscience, and a background in Human Nutrition. She collaborated for six years with the University of Costa Rica in the development and implementation of interventions for childhood obesity prevention in Costa Rican school-aged children. Her main research interest focuses on the interaction between biological and environmental factors and neurocognitive outcomes in the various stages of life. Currently, she works under the guidance of Dr. Harezlak, studying the interaction of multiple biological and behavioral factors and neurodevelopment in children. After graduating, she will pursue a postdoctoral position, to improve her knowledge and develop her research in neurodevelopment.
Past anxious/depressed syndrome t-scores and substance use during COVID-19 in early adolescents from the ABCD Study
Paola Mattey-Mora1, MPH, Jaroslaw Harezlak1, PhD, Maria A. Parker1, PhD.
1Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Bloomington, IN 47401
Background: Anxiety and depression are the most prevalent mental health concerns in adolescents, yet few studies have explored it effects in adolescents’ substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose: We examined the association of pre-COVID-19 identified anxious/depressed syndrome t-scores with substance use (alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis) during the COVID-19 pandemic among adolescents.
Methods: A total of 3,896 participants enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, were included in this study. Past anxious/depressed syndrome t-scores were calculated with the Child Behavior Checklist Scale. Substance use was obtained from the Youth ABCD COVID-19 questionnaire. Age, sex, parents’ alcohol/drug use, family income, and simultaneous substance use, and feeling sad during COVID-19, were included as potential confounders. Crude and adjusted mixed effect logistic regression models were fitted to estimate odds ratios with study sit as a random effect.
Results: No statistically significant associations were found between anxious/depressed syndrome t-scores and any of the substances in the crude and adjusted models. In the stratified analysis focused on participants with borderline and clinical anxious/depressed syndrome (n= 321), a crude association was found between anxious/depressed t-scores and cannabis (OR:1.21, p. 0.03) and any substance use (OR: 1.14, p. 0.03), but became non-significant in the adjusted models.
Conclusions: Pre-pandemic anxious/depressed syndrome t-scores were not associated with substance use during COVID-19. Nonetheless, we found a crude association for cannabis and any substance in participants with borderline and clinical anxious/depressed syndrome. Further studies are required to understand the association between anxiety/depression and substance use in adolescents with borderline and clinical diagnosis during lockdown situations.
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