Evaluation of Parental Employment Status and Occupational Characteristics of Pediatric COVID-19 Cases

Objective: This study examines the epidemiological characteristics, employment status, and professional characteristics of children and their parents who had been diagnosed with Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Methods: The study population consisted of 300 children with COVID-19 who applied to our hospital between October 2020 and January 2021. During the interviews, the working status of the parents, the sector they work in, occupational groups, household income levels, health insurance, COVID-19 expenditures, and income scores were recorded. Results: The median age of the cases was 156 [minimum-maximum (min-max): 7-216] months and 157 (52.3%) were girls. There were 75 (25%) working mothers and 254 (84.7%) fathers among the parents. There were 11 (3.7%) parents who were unemployed due to the pandemic. The median household income was 3000 (min-max: 0-25000) Turkish liras/361 (min-max: 0-3012) US dollars, and 128 cases (42.7%) spent due to COVID-19. When the cases were compared according to their COVID-19 spending status, it was seen that permanent working fathers had more expenditures related to COVID-19 than non-permanent fathers (p=0.019). Participants with a household income score of 0-5 were found to spend less due to COVID-19 than participants with a household income score of 6-10 (p=0.029). Conclusion: The population of our study consists of families with low household income and predominantly working in basic occupations. It is noteworthy that the economic burden on families has increased with COVID-19 infection. Moreover, families are negatively affected economically due to job losses and increased expenditures during the pandemic period.