Project Overview
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, both economic and racial/ethnic disparities have been dramatically on display, with life and death consequences. COVID-19 serves as a deadly wake-up call regarding the need to better understand how existing social, economic and health disparities are compounded in their consequences on disadvantaged communities in the wake of disaster, in this case, a deadly pandemic. If we are to develop improved preparations for responding to future epidemics, it is especially important to understand how COVID-19 is affecting substance use (SU) and mental health (MH) across different racial/ethnic communities.
Therefore, this Stress and COVID-19 (S&C) Study is designed to address such questions by expanding an ongoing study, which immediately entered the field and is recruiting a random selection of participants from four ongoing, longitudinal epidemiologic studies examining the impact of different types of trauma and stress in the York City metropolitan area, epicenter of COVID-19. Taken together, these studies encompass a broad range of SES and racial/ethnic diversity (49% minority; 51% white), with the participants thoroughly characterized in multiple waves of data during key stressors, traumas, as well as thorough diagnostic assessments of SU and MH.
The first wave of the proposed S&C Study, which was initiated in mid-March 2020 to capture early indicators, is interviewing, via telephone, a random selection (n=1,000) of participants drawn from four ongoing studies (N=6,178) including the Parent Grant study which is focused on a (98%) minority population, and assessing the multifaceted impacts that COVID is CURRENTLY having, especially on SU and MH behaviors, expecting a sample of N=800.
This project will support the follow-up phase of work, which will consist of two additional waves of data collection, at six and nine months after the conclusion of the first wave (months 1-3) and analysis of all waves of data. This will allow for a longitudinal trajectory analysis of the COVID-19 impact on SU and MH outcomes. Importantly, this S&C Study design also allows for the utilization of 2-4 waves of detailed pre-COVID- 19 data on each subject, including SU and MH behaviors and diagnoses, and a wide range of important risk factors for post-COVID outcomes.
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Research Aims
This study will support the investigation of which factors predict COVID-driven trajectories of SU and MH outcomes, as well as other COVID-driven life changes. The cohorts being combined for this study were originally chosen for their unique exposures to different forms of childhood trauma: including disaster (9/11), parental involvement with the criminal justice system, and parental SUD. Thus, this study will help us determine how prior trauma impacts subsequent COVID-19 behaviors, especially SU and MH across different exposures and across disparate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Taken together, the design features of this study represent a unique opportunity to examine how pre-existing and current disparities are contributing to COVID-19 outcome disparities in SU and MH burden.