Trends in Adolescent Depression Screening Outcomes Over the COVID-19 Pandemic at a Large, Integrated Health Care System in Southern California

Purpose

Little is known about changes in depression screening outcomes among adolescents in primary healthcare across the COVID-19 pandemic. We describe trends in depression screening outcomes within a large integrated health care system in Southern California.

Methods

Retrospective electronic health record data from preventative healthcare visits of 11–12-year-olds and 13–17-year-olds screened for depression from March 1, 2017, to August 31, 2022, were extracted in 6-month blocks. The percentages of screens meeting “threshold depression” were reported overall, and by sex, race or ethnicity, and median household income quintiles. We used Poisson regression to estimate rate ratios of threshold depression in 3 winter blocks (September to February) comparing lockdown (2020), reopening (2021) to a pre-COVID (2019) period, and reopening relative to lockdown. Disparities in trends by sex, race, or ethnicity and household income were tested using interaction terms.

Results

Of 735,333 visits with complete screening (183,550 for 11–12-year-olds and 551,783 for 13–17-year-olds), 4.6%, 6.5%, and 7.4% of 11–12-year-olds had “threshold depression” during winter blocks of pre-COVID, lockdown and reopening, respectively. The corresponding rates were 5.8%, 8.5%, and 9.8% for 13–17-year-olds. The rates were higher during lockdown and reopening relative to pre-COVID and higher during reopening relative to lockdown for both age groups (all p-values <.001). Trends differed by sex in both age groups (p-values <.001) and by race or ethnicity (p = .001) in the 13–17-year age group.

Discussion

Californian adolescents demonstrated an increase in threshold depression since COVID lockdown starting March 2020 with further increase observed during reopening in September 2021. Future studies are needed to determine the long-term trends.