Abstract
School closures during pandemics raise important concerns for children and adolescents. Our aim is synthesizing available data on the impact of school closure during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on child and adolescent health globally. We conducted a rapid systematic review by searching PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar for any study published between January and September 2020. We included a total of ten primary studies. COVID-19-related school closure was associated with a significant decline in the number of hospital admissions and pediatric emergency department visits. However, a number of children and adolescents lost access to school-based healthcare services, special services for children with disabilities, and nutrition programs. A greater risk of widening educational disparities due to lack of support and resources for remote learning were also reported among poorer families and children with disabilities. School closure also contributed to increased anxiety and loneliness in young people and child stress, sadness, frustration, indiscipline, and hyperactivity. The longer the duration of school closure and reduction of daily physical activity, the higher was the predicted increase of Body Mass Index and childhood obesity prevalence. There is a need to identify children and adolescents at higher risk of learning and mental health impairments and support them during school closures.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected primary and secondary schooling worldwide
Children 2021, 8, x FOR PEER REVIEsWtudies reporting the impact of COVID-19 school closure on child and adolescent h5eaolfth1,6 and one modeling study that predicted the impact of COVID-19 school closure on child and adolescent health (Figure 1)
Seven out of the ten included primary studies reported data on the impact of school closure only on child and adolescent health, whereas the remaining three primary studies reported the impact of school closure combined with other preventive measures on child and adolescent health
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected primary and secondary schooling worldwide. Temporary closure of over 90% of schools worldwide has been reported since March 2020 to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 [1]. This has impacted over 1.5 billion students globally [1]. School closures are driven by physical distancing policies derived from previous models of influenza outbreaks in which children are a vulnerable group for morbidity and play a major role in the spread of the infection [2–4]. For children and adolescents with special educational or mental health needs, schools are critical, and in some cases, the only provider of resources that they depend on [13]. In some middle-income countries, such as Thailand, approximately 60%
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