RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Effect of Additional Childcare Roles on COVID-19 Symptom Knowledge Among Youth in South Africa
Nicole De Wet-Billings1, *, Francis Anyanzu1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2022Volume: 15
E-location ID: e187494452201210
Publisher ID: e187494452201210
DOI: 10.2174/18749445-v15-e2201210
Article History:
Received Date: 7/8/2021Revision Received Date: 9/11/2021
Acceptance Date: 25/11/2021
Electronic publication date: 18/03/2022
Collection year: 2022
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
As of March 2020, young people performed additional household responsibilities due to COVID-19 in South Africa. In particular, youth assisted with childcare since schools were closed. However, little is known of the impact of changing roles and additional responsibilities on young people’s ability to keep abreast of important information regarding the spread of the virus.
Objective:
The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between additional childcare responsibilities and complete awareness of the knowledge of symptoms of COVID-19 among young people in South Africa.
Methods:
Using data from the South African National Income Dynamics CRAM Survey (wave 1), 710 (72.08%) young individuals (18-24 years old) who listed symptoms of COVID-19 were analysed. The study controlled for covariates as additional childcare responsibilities, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents. Cross-tabulations and a binary logistic regression model were used to determine the relationship between covariates and the outcome of the knowledge of symptoms.
Results:
None of the respondents reported 100% knowledge of the symptoms of COVID-19 while 57.5% reported having additional childcare responsibilities. Among youth with additional childcare, 90.71% knew regarding approximately half (50%) of the symptoms. Finally, not having additional childcare roles increased the odds of knowing at least three symptoms of the coronavirus (OR= 2.36; CI: 1.227387 - 2.543323).
Conclusion:
Youth, especially those spending increasing time caring for children, need more access to information regarding the virus. This information is key to protecting themselves and the children in their care.
