Prevalence of Chronic Diseases, Depression, and Stress among U.S. Child Care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Importance

There is no published national research reporting child care professionals’ physical health, depression, or stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given their central role in supporting children’s development, child care professionals’ overall physical and mental health is important.

Objectives

To evaluate the prevalence of chronic diseases, depression, and stress levels during the COVID-19 pandemic among U.S. child care professionals.

Design

In this large-scale national survey, data were collected through an online survey from May 22, 2020 to June 8, 2020. We analyzed the association of sociodemographic characteristics with four physical health conditions (asthma, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity), depression, and stress weighted to national representativeness. Sociodemographic characteristics included race, ethnicity, age, gender, medical insurance status, and child care type.

Setting

Center- and home-based child care.

Participants

Child care professionals (n = 81,682) from all U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Results

Mean age was 42.1 years (standard deviation = 14.1); 96.0% (n = 78,725) were female, 2.5% (n = 2,033) were male, and 0.3% (n = 225) were non-binary. For physical health conditions, 14.3% (n = 11,717) reported moderate to severe asthma, 6.5% (n = 5,317) diabetes, 4.9% (n = 3,971) heart disease, and 19.8% (n = 16,207) being obese. Regarding mental health, 45.7% (n = 37,376) screened positive for depression and 66.5% (n = 54,381) reported moderate to high stress levels. Race, ethnicity, and gender disparities were evidenced for physical health conditions of child care professionals, but not for mental health during the pandemic.

Conclusions and Relevance

Our findings highlight that child care professionals’ depression rates during the pandemic were much higher than before the pandemic, and depression, stress and asthma rates were higher than U.S. adult depression rates during the pandemic. Given the essential work child care professionals provide during the pandemic, policy makers and public health officials should consider what can be done to support the physical and mental health of child care professionals.

Key Points