Abstract
The fast-spreading coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced countries to apply restrictive measures to counteract it. School closure was quickly adopted by health authorities. We aimed to investigate the compliance of children aged 4 to 12 years with the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and evaluate the impact of school closure on the children’s educational, social, economic, and psychological outcomes. An online survey was distributed through a social networking platform to parents of pre-primary and primary school-age children. The study period was defined as from 27 November 2020 to 3 December 2020, two weeks after the school closure due to the general lockdown in Greece. This study showed that the school units were well-informed and complied with the protection measures against COVID-19. The pupils quickly adopted the protection measures, even those whose parents suggested masks were less effective. The quarantine-forced school closure highly impacted primary school children’s physical activity, quality of sleep, psychological status, eating habits, academic performance, and household income. Web use showed an increase, with the children over-spending extracurricular time in web activities. Our study highlights the need for long term monitoring of these aforementioned indices, and the development of COVID-19 mitigation measures that carefully incorporate effectiveness and societal impact.
Highlights
The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic forced countries worldwide to apply restrictive measures to avoid the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)
We found that the lockdown period, especially after the school closure, harmed the physical activity, psychological status, sleep quality, eating habits, and academic performance of the primary school-age children
The present study highlights the major role that schools played in developing an appropriate hygiene education campaign aimed at children resulting in their compliance with protective hygiene measures, regardless of their parents’ beliefs, in Greece
Summary
The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic forced countries worldwide to apply restrictive measures to avoid the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). School closure was considered a proactive measure against the pandemic and was quickly adopted by many governments [1]. These policies were founded on previous experience with mass influenza A epidemics, and aimed at a flat reduction of transmissibility [2,3,4]. While school closure has been adopted by several countries, multiple meta-analyses have indicated a minimal effect on COVID-19’s transmission dynamics and outcomes [5,6,7].
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