The Relations Among GI Symptoms, Mental Health, and Online Schooling for Youth With GI Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: For youth with gastrointestinal (GI) conditions, mental health symptoms can exacerbate GI symptoms. In a cyclical fashion, experiencing GI symptoms at school can contribute to depression, anxiety, and embarrassment. This study evaluated the impact of school instruction type on mental health and GI symptoms for youth with GI conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: Data were collected from caregivers and patients aged 8 to 17 years with inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, and irritable bowel syndrome (N = 146) from September to December 2020. Patients completed measures of depression, anxiety, anger, and GI symptoms; caregivers provided their child's school instruction type (online, hybrid, or in-person). Analyses were conducted to examine the relations of mental health symptoms, GI symptoms, and school instruction type.

Results: Participants generally had mild levels of depressive symptoms (T = 55.50), and anxiety (T = 53.02) and anger (T = 49.92) symptoms were within normal limits. Anxiety and GI symptoms were positively related (b = 0.14, p < 0.01), and if participants were attending school online, they had worse GI symptoms (b = 0.46, p < 0.05). However, there was no significant interaction between anxiety and instruction type. Depression and anger were not significantly related to GI symptoms and there were no significant interactions.

Conclusion: For children with GI conditions during the pandemic, as their anxiety symptoms increased, so did their GI symptoms. Further research should examine the long-term effects of virtual learning for those with GI conditions.