Parents' Reports of Colombian Children's Neurobehavioral Symptoms Before,During,and After COVID-19 Infection

Abstract

Background

COVID-19 disproportionately affected individuals from marginalized and underserved communities, and little research has investigated how COVID-19 might have impacted neurobehavioral symptoms in children from Latin America. What little research suggests that COVID-19 had a negative effect on neurobehavioral symptoms and that this effect was worse for individuals who were younger, had lower education, or other chronic conditions.

Objective

The purpose of the current study was to examine the change (before, during, and after) in neurobehavioral symptoms for a sample of Colombian children who tested positive for COVID-19 and to identify key predictors of post-COVID neurobehavioral impairments.

Methods

The Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory was administered to caregivers (92.90% female) of 85 children (51.80% female) by researchers in Colombia. Data was collected after the child had recovered from COVID-19 with retrospective questions about the child's function before and during COVID-19, as well as at the time of data collection.

Results

At the domain level, caregivers reported large increases in children's somatic symptoms, a medium increase in affective symptoms, and a small increase in cognitive symptoms before vs. during COVID-19. Caregivers also noted a large increase in children's somatic symptoms, a medium increase in affective symptoms, and a small increase in cognitive symptoms before vs after COVID-19. The somatic symptom domain was the only category to see an improvement following infection (during vs after). Three separate linear regressions indicated that greater COVID-19 severity during the infection significantly predicted greater current (after COVID-19) somatic symptom severity, and the presence of a pre-existing respiratory disease significantly predicted greater current cognitive and affective symptom severity.

Conclusion

This study highlights the importance of evaluating and treating neurobehavioral symptoms post-COVID-19 among children in Colombia and identifies this need in an underserved and under-researched population. Future research may examine whether early intervention and rehabilitation strategies help improve post-COVID-19 neurobehavioral symptoms for this group.