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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

UNICEF Innocenti's curated library of COVID-19 + Children research

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1 - 15 of 129
Considerations for mitigating COVID-19 related risks in schools

AUTHOR(S)
Amy Gimma; Sham Lal

Published: September 2021   Journal: The Lancet Regional Health - Americas
As the new school year begins in the United States, school districts will be tasked with providing in-person teaching while keeping children and school staff safe, an increasingly difficult goal in the presence of the COVID-19 delta variant. This study aims to provide updated interpretations of past and newly published studies to assist in assessing risk in schools, and to add additional perspectives on addressing the social determinants of learning and on the role of race and other social factors. It advocates for the continued implementation of risk mitigation strategies in schools, including mandatory mask policies, improved ventilation, and convenient access to vaccinations for those eligible, as recommended by the CDC, and to use this opportunity to make long-term improvements to our schools as a matter of urgency.
Parents of children with disabilities and the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Her Majesty Queen Mathilde

Published: August 2021   Journal: Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted authorities and institutions around the world to adopt urgent measures of general application, including limiting social contact and shutting down public spaces to prevent spread of the virus. We now see clearly what had been insufficiently anticipated and planned for. Quarantine and other preventative measures often had painful consequences for those who already lead a more challenging life—the disadvantaged and the vulnerable, and those around them. In the context of the pandemic, parents and caregivers of children with disabilities or complex chronic disorders faced unprecedented, at times insurmountable dilemmas. Schools and residential care facilities closed their doors; non-acute management was severely disrupted. Parents and carers had to decide on their own whether to take their children out of care and return them to the family home, or leave them in the usual living environment, where visits and other social contacts were drastically reduced or prohibited.

Young people's drug use stayed level during pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Alison Knopf

Published: August 2021   Journal: Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly
Alcohol use declined and use of nicotine and misuse of prescriptions increased among 10-to-14-year-olds during the pandemic, according to a study published last week. Overall, the rate of drug use among these young people remained stable during the pandemic based on repeated surveys of more than 7,800 people ages 10 to 14 conducted between September 2019 and August 2020.
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on a large cohort of adult survivors of childhood cancer

AUTHOR(S)
Kevin R. Krull; Aaron McDonald; Pamela Goodman (et al.)

Published: August 2021   Journal: Pediatric Blood & Cancer
Childhood cancer survivors may be differentially impacted by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). From April to June of 2020, we examined psychosocial/health concerns in 4148 adult survivors and 571 siblings. Although more survivors reported concerns about getting sick (p = .002) and needing hospitalization (p = .003) in general, survivors and siblings were comparably concerned about being infected with and the consequences of COVID-19. Cranial radiation was associated with social isolation (relative risk [RR] = 1.3, CI = 1.1–1.7), and central nervous system (CNS) tumors were associated with unemployment due to COVID-19 (RR = 1.7, CI = 1.2–2.2). Some survivors appear more vulnerable and may require more support to meet health care and vocational needs during COVID-19, though siblings also perceive substantial risk.
Exploring factors that influence children’s growth and development during a pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Kimiya Amjadi

Published: August 2021   Journal: Global Pediatric Health
The potential long-term impacts of natural or man-made disasters on children and adolescents have been the subject of numerous scientific research studies over the past decades. Since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it has become even more important to continue these investigations in order to address the special needs of our youth. While the virus itself appears to cause less pathology in them compared to adults, the effects go beyond the disease itself. The pandemic has caused extremely high levels of stress for both the children and their families. As a result, special attention has to be given to the possible long-term impacts on their growth and development. It is very important for physicians and other healthcare providers to recognize the signs and symptoms of stress and monitor for physical and mental health inequities, and to be able to provide support when help is needed. Identifying culturally effective solutions and reaching out to community based organizations or partners for resources and programs with which families identify is an important part of this healing provision.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and adolescent mental health services

AUTHOR(S)
Hannah Chu-Han Huang; Dennis Ougrin

Published: August 2021   Journal: BJPsych Open

The COVID-19 pandemic and government lockdown restrictions have had an impact on children and young people worldwide. In this editorial, we explore how and why referrals to UK children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) have changed during the pandemic and summarise the emerging data on the potential reasons behind this.


COVID-19 vaccines for children in LMICs: another equity issue

AUTHOR(S)
Beate Kampmann; Uduak Okomo

Published: July 2021   Journal: The Lancet Journal

Given the success of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing death and severe disease in adults and their impact on community transmission,  use in children and young people (CYP) inevitably requires consideration. Although severe COVID-19 is rare in CYP, they are affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including education, mental health, and general wellbeing. As of late July, 2021, no COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for children younger than 12 years and safety and efficacy data from phase 3 clinical trials are so far limited: 1131 CYP aged 12–15 years received the Pfizer–BioNTech mRNA vaccine and safety data are available from phase 1 and 2 trials of Sinovac's inactivated CoronaVac vaccine in 438 children aged 3–17 years. Safety data have been reassuring, with published data confirming excellent immunogenicity. There is no reason to believe the vaccines should not be equally protective against COVID-19 in CYP as they are in adults. More than 30 international trials are now recruiting CYP as young as 6 months to assess safety, immunogenicity, dosing, and scheduling questions.
Unintended trauma: the role of public health policy in the detention of migrant children

AUTHOR(S)
Michele Statz; Lauren Heidbrink

Published: July 2021   Journal: The Lancet Regional Health - Americas
Within the first three months of 2021, an unprecedented 33,000 unaccompanied children arrived at the United States-Mexico border. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responded by opening new facilities for detained migrant children in converted convention centers, stadiums, and military bases. Ranging from 1000 to 5000 beds, these facilities are not unique to the U.S.: Europe and Australia have adopted similar models of detaining arriving migrants and refugees.1 Responding to these trends, global public health scholars have identified how large post-reception models negatively impact migrants’ mental and physical health and further contribute to increased vulnerability to COVID-19.2 Considerably less attention has been paid to how pandemic-related public health policies have actually fueled the recent demand for mass detention facilities.
Children and SARS-CoV-2

AUTHOR(S)
Dusan Bogunovic; Miriam Merad

Published: July 2021   Journal: Cell Host & Microbe
A previously immune-naive world population is experiencing natural infection with SARS-CoV-2. Severe COVID-19 predominantly impacts adults, yet multisystem inflammatory disorder primarily impacts children. Herein, this article discusses known clinical and biological features of SARS-CoV-2 in children and reflects on currently identified immune features and discusses what remains unknown.
Cite this research | Open access | Vol.: 29 | Issue: 7 | No. of pages: 1040-1042 | Language: English | Topics: Health | Tags: child health, COVID-19, disease transmission, infectious disease, medical research, respiratory diseases
Ongoing asthma management in children during the COVID-19 pandemic: to step down or not to step down?

AUTHOR(S)
Elissa Michele Abrams; Stanley Szefler

Published: July 2021   Journal: The Lancet Respiratory Medicine
A substantial reduction in asthma exacerbations in both children and adults has been seen in many countries worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. The cause of this reduction is likely to be multifactorial, but at least partly due to population-level public health measures, such as physical distancing, masking, and hand washing, which reduce broad viral transmission. This improvement in asthma control poses an interesting clinical dilemma: should clinicians consider tapering asthma medications in children during the pandemic in the face of good asthma control? Furthermore, if medicines are reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, should clinicians return to the pre-COVID-19 schedule as respiratory precautions are gradually relaxed?
COVID-19: the turning point for gender equality

AUTHOR(S)
Senait Fisseha; Gita Sen; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; Henrietta H. Fore (et al.)

Published: July 2021   Journal: The Lancet
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have gone far beyond the disease itself. In addition to the increasing number of COVID-19 deaths, the pandemic has deepened social and economic inequalities. These indirect impacts have been compounded by pervasive gender inequalities, with profound consequences, especially for women, girls, and people of diverse gender identities. There has been an escalation in gender-based violence within households, increasing numbers of child marriages and female genital mutilation, and an increased burden of unpaid care work, with impacts on mental health. Communities of people affected by HIV are, again, at the crossroads of injustice and targeted discrimination. Measures to control the pandemic have reduced access to essential health and social welfare services, including sexual and reproductive health services, reduced employment and labour force participation, and decimated many household incomes. Here again, women have borne the brunt of marginalisation, particularly those working in the informal sector. Intersectionality analyses have highlighted the inextricable effects of poverty, racial discrimination, harmful gender norms, and limited agency and opportunities for women, especially already marginalised women, even when they represent most of the front-line health workers. The diversion of funds from other health and development programmes into economic recovery means that the pandemic is further eroding health gains made over decades, stalling progress on tackling gender inequalities.
Early marriage and teenage pregnancy: the unspoken consequences of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria

AUTHOR(S)
Shuaibu Saidu Musa; Goodness Ogeyi Odey; Muhammad Kabir Musa (et al.)

Published: July 2021   Journal: Public Health in Practice
Early marriage and its sad consequences to the girl child and socio-economic development of the nation has been an age-long issue being advocated against in many parts of Nigeria. At the onset of COVID-19, the teeming efforts to curb this issue almost got jeopardized with harsh economic situations in many households due to the lockdown and the willingness to marry off their girls to reduce this burden. Closure of schools and cases of sexual gender based violence also impacted the prevalence of early marriage during the pandemic in Nigeria.
COVID-19 vaccines for children younger than 12 years: are we ready?

AUTHOR(S)
Xiaohui Zou; Bin Cao

Published: June 2021
On May 5, 2021, Canada became the first country in the world to approve COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in children aged 12–15 years; later the same month, the US Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency also gave the green light to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents. Children younger than 12 years are the next population who need a safe and efficient COVID-19 vaccine. In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Bihua Han and colleagues reported the results of a double-blind, randomised, controlled, phase 1/2 clinical trial, which showed that the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine (CoronaVac) had good safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity in youths aged 3–17 years. This promising result should inspire the ongoing trial of other COVID-19 vaccines in children younger than 12 years.
Breast feeding in pandemic situation: how does Sri Lanka face the challenge?

AUTHOR(S)
Neerodha Dharmasoma

Published: June 2021   Journal: Current Developments in Nutrition
Sri Lanka has been awarded the first-ever ‘Green’ breastfeeding (BF) nation status by the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) in January 2020 with the support of public health system. But, deviating attention of health services towards emergency pandemic situation has resulted in strained health systems and interruptions in humanitarian response leading to eroding access to essential and often life-saving nutrition services. Therefore, optimal breast feeding practices are at risk due to infected mothers’ isolation practices, exhausted public health system and misbeliefs among the community. This finds out how Sri Lanka plans to maintain high standards of breast feeding in pandemic situation.
Parents’ intention to get vaccinated and to have their child vaccinated against COVID-19: cross-sectional analyses using data from the KUNO-Kids health study

AUTHOR(S)
Susanne Brandstetter; Merle M. Böhmer; Maja Pawellek (et al.)

Published: May 2021   Journal: European Journal of Pediatrics
A COVID-19 vaccine can be an important key for mitigating the spread of the pandemic, provided that it is accepted by a sufficient proportion of the population. This study investigated parents’ intention to get vaccinated and to have one’s child vaccinated against COVID-19. In May 2020, 612 parents participating with their child in the KUNO-Kids health study completed an online survey.
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COVID-19 & Children: Rapid Research Response

UNICEF Innocenti is mobilizing a rapid research response in line with UNICEF’s global response to the COVID-19 crisis. The initiatives we’ve begun will provide the broad range of evidence needed to inform our work to scale up rapid assessment, develop urgent mitigating strategies in programming and advocacy, and preparation of interventions to respond to the medium and longer-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. The research projects cover a rapid review of evidence, education analysis, and social and economic policies.