Caregiver Concerns About Child Development During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Those With Missed Appointments: Preliminary Results

Introduction: The aim of this study is to examine caregivers’ perception of their child falling behind on developmental milestones after canceled or delayed appointments in metropolitan Chicago during stay-at-home orders, from March 21 to May 7, 2020. Methods: We fielded a web-based caregiver survey to understand the impact of the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's healthcare experiences, characterizing the proportions of caregiver perceptions of children falling behind in developmental milestones by canceled or delayed appointment types. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the likelihood of falling behind in milestones. Results: Overall, 229 (7.5%) caregivers reported children with canceled or delayed appointments falling behind in developmental milestones. Approximately 25.4% of caregivers reported children falling behind on milestones in the missed therapeutic group, compared with that in the other missed group (2.9%) (p<0.001). Children in the missed therapeutic group (AOR=10.3, 95% CI=7.60, 14.0) and caregivers who experienced job loss (AOR=1.59, 95% CI=1.11, 2.28) or reduced hours or pay (AOR=1.90, 95% CI=1.28, 2.82) had higher odds of falling behind on developmental milestones. Conclusions: Implementation of new strategies to address the social needs of families should be developed when disruptions in developmental or therapeutic services among children occur, particularly among children living in households with job insecurity.