Anxiety and harmful oral habits in preschool children during the 2020 first-wave COVID‑19 lockdown in Turkey.

Kevser Kolcakoglu,Gul Yucel

doi:10.17219/dmp/142284

Abstract

Due to curfew and quarantine practices designed to reduce the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19), social isolation has tested the psychological limits of children. The authors evaluated parent-observed symptoms of anxiety in preschool children with harmful oral habits during the curfew period in Turkey. The authors prepared a questionnaire with Google Forms that was distributed through social media applications (e.g., WhatsApp) to 405 parents recruited via snowball sampling. To measure children's symptoms and levels of anxiety, the Spence Preschool Anxiety Scale (SPAS) was used. Harmful oral habits that might develop in children during the curfew were investigated. Separation anxiety and physical injury anxiety were reported by the parents more frequently than general anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Also, the presence of tantrums (p = 0.010), crying attacks (p = 0.010) and aggression (p = 0.010) were reported by the parents in these children. It was observed that the habits of finger sucking (p = 0.010), nail biting (p = 0.040) and lip biting (p = 0.010) that were present before the curfew decreased significantly after the curfew. Children aged 3-7 years can develop anxiety about physical injuries and about being separated from their parents as well as tantrums and crying attacks. Their harmful oral habits (i.e., finger sucking, nail biting and lip biting) all decreased during the curfew period.

Highlights

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a family of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging from severe respiratory infections to mild conditions, like the common cold
Due to curfew and quarantine practices designed to reduce the spread of coronavirus dis‐ ease 2019 (COVID‐19), social isolation has tested the psychological limits of children
Separation anxiety and physical injury anxiety were reported by the parents more frequently than general anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Summary

Introduction

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a family of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging from severe respiratory infections to mild conditions, like the common cold. In January 2020, a novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, began causing cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, China.[1] The virus was similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), but had never been detected in humans before. On March 11, 2020, following the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) in 113 countries, including Turkey, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID‐19 a pandemic. 21.2 million cases and 761,000 deaths were reported worldwide.[1] For those and other reasons, COVID‐19 has been perceived as a major threat to public health, and to the global economy. Due to curfew and quarantine practices designed to reduce the spread of coronavirus dis‐ ease 2019 (COVID‐19), social isolation has tested the psychological limits of children

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