Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39556297›Full record

ArticleJournal of autism and developmental disorders2026

Determinants of Positive Evolution of Symptoms in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) during the COVID-19 Lockdown in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (DRC).

Davin Mbeya Mpaka, Luck Lukusa, Sifa Marie Joelle Muchanga, Annick Vogels, Ally Omba Ndjukendi, Arsene Bukama Mutonji, Dorah Lwanzo Kavira, Julienne Managa Nzuzi, Thierry Matonda-Ma-Nzuzi, Samuel Ma-Miezi Mampunza and 1 more

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Article in Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Davin Mbeya MpakaDepartment of Psychiatry, the Neuro-Psycho-Pathological Center, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), P.O. Box: 825, Kinshasa, XI DRC, Congo. davmpaka@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0002-4038-2827
Luck LukusaResearch Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), Montreal, Canada.
Sifa Marie Joelle MuchangaDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Annick VogelsCentre of Human Genetics, University Hospital of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Ally Omba NdjukendiDepartment of Psychiatry, the Neuro-Psycho-Pathological Center, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), P.O. Box: 825, Kinshasa, XI DRC, Congo.
Arsene Bukama MutonjiInstitut Supérieur de Statistique de Lubumbashi, (ISS-L'shi), Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dorah Lwanzo KaviraInternational University of East Africa, Kampala, Uganda.
Julienne Managa NzuziDepartment of Psychiatry, the Neuro-Psycho-Pathological Center, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), P.O. Box: 825, Kinshasa, XI DRC, Congo.
Thierry Matonda-Ma-NzuziDepartment of Psychiatry, the Neuro-Psycho-Pathological Center, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), P.O. Box: 825, Kinshasa, XI DRC, Congo.
Samuel Ma-Miezi MampunzaDepartment of Psychiatry, the Neuro-Psycho-Pathological Center, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), P.O. Box: 825, Kinshasa, XI DRC, Congo.
Joachim Ebwel MukauDepartment of Psychology, Centre d'Evaluation et d'Intervention pour Enfants avec Handicap Mental et/ou Autisme (CEIEHMA), The National University of Education (UPN), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Lockdown imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic increased the time families spent together at home. A negative impact of the lock-down on children with autism has been reported. Few studies described the positive impact of parents' presence on the severity of their children's autism symptoms during lockdown. To describe the positive impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the evolution of Children' Symptoms with autism and parents' emotional status and to determine which variables had a positive or negative impact on the severity of autism features in Kinshasa. From April 15 to July 15, 2020, we analyzed the evolution of core symptoms of 68 children with autism and correlated these findings with the presence of a parent at home during lockdown. We performed multivariate logistic regression to assess the factors associated to autism symptoms improvement after adjustment by sex, age at ASD diagnosis, education, parent occupation, child's occupancy time, presence of parent's depression, and presence of comorbidities and core symptoms in children. Parents reported ASD symptom improvement in 42.6% of children. Factors positively associate with ASD symptoms improvement were presence of a parent for more than 8 h per day, improvement of social communication and autonomy. In contrast, severe to moderate depression in parents and presence of main comorbidities in children were associated with more severe autistic symptoms in their children. The presence of a parent at home, improved child communication and autonomy improved autism symptoms. On the other hand, parental depression and comorbidities in children with ASD aggravated the symptoms during lockdown in Kinshasa/DRC. These findings emphasize the importance of the physical presence of parents as well as the length of time they spend with their children with ASD. In addition, they show that depressive feelings in parents and comorbidities in ASD have a negative impact in the severity of their symptoms during lockdown.

Indexed as

Autism Spectrum DisorderCOVID-19ParentsQuarantineAdolescentChildChild, PreschoolDemocratic Republic of the CongoFemaleHumansMaleSARS-CoV-2Severity of Illness IndexAutism spectrum disorderDRCLockdownParental depressionParental presence at homePositive evolution of ASD symptoms

Identifiers

PMID39556297
PMCPMC12987894

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.