Three years into the pandemic: results of the longitudinal German COPSY study on youth mental health and health-related quality of life

• Published in: Frontiers in public health Vol. 11; p. 1129073
• Main Authors: Ravens-Sieberer, Ulrike, Devine, Janine, Napp, Ann-Kathrin, Kaman, Anne, Saftig, Lynn, Gilbert, Martha, Reiß, Franziska, Löffler, Constanze, Simon, Anja Miriam, Hurrelmann, Klaus, Walper, Sabine, Schlack, Robert, Hölling, Heike, Wieler, Lothar Heinz, Erhart, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 15-06-2023
• Subjects: children and adolescents; COVID-19; longitudinal; mental health; pandemic; Public Health; COVID-19; children and adolescents; longitudinal; pandemic; mental health
• ISSN: 2296-2565; 2296-2565
• DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1129073

For the past three years, the German longitudinal COPSY (
) study has monitored changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and the mental health of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A nationwide, population-based survey was conducted in May-June 2020 (W1), December 2020-January 2021 (W2), September-October 2021 (W3), February 2022 (W4), and September-October 2022 (W5). In total,
 = 2,471 children and adolescents aged 7-17 years (
 = 1,673 aged 11-17 years with self-reports) were assessed using internationally established and validated measures of HRQoL (KIDSCREEN-10), mental health problems (SDQ), anxiety (SCARED), depressive symptoms (CES-DC, PHQ-2), psychosomatic complaints (HBSC-SCL), and fear about the future (DFS-K). Findings were compared to prepandemic population-based data.
While the prevalence of low HRQoL increased from 15% prepandemic to 48% at W2, it improved to 27% at W5. Similarly, overall mental health problems rose from 18% prepandemic to W1 through W2 (30-31%), and since then slowly declined (W3: 27%, W4: 29%, W5: 23%). Anxiety doubled from 15% prepandemic to 30% in W2 and declined to 25% (W5) since then. Depressive symptoms increased from 15%/10% (CES-DC/PHQ-2) prepandemic to 24%/15% in W2, and slowly decreased to 14%/9% in W5. Psychosomatic complaints are across all waves still on the rise. 32-44% of the youth expressed fears related to other current crises.
Mental health of the youth improved in year 3 of the pandemic, but is still lower than before the pandemic.