Are Sociodemographic and Economic Disparities Associated with the Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Parents, Families, and Children Born Extremely Preterm in California?
The aim of this project is to answer questions related to the broad and growing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children born preterm, their parents, and families, and to explore associations of post-discharge child healthcare access challenges, adverse child health effects, and parent stress and anxiety with sociodemographic disparities, and with NICU and HRIF clinic factors. To meet these objectives, we will launch a multilevel, serial survey to determine how parents and families of children born < 30 weeks estimated gestational age in California are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis - including parental stress and anxiety, access to medical and special health care services, financial and resource stability - through 3 years of age. For this project, we will focus on a 6-month birth cohort of children and families who were in a CPQCC NICU during the COVID-19 pandemic and referred CPQCC CCS HRIF at discharge, with surveys at 4-8 months of age and 12-16 months of age corrected for prematurity.