Children and COVID-19 Research Library

World Vision’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was the organisation’s largest ever in terms of geographic reach.  Launched March 11, 2020 - the day the World Health Organization declared the pandemic - the response spanned more than 70 countries and reached more than 81 million people over its two-and-a-half-year lifespan. In order to find out how effective the response was and what lessons needed to be learned World Vision consulted with 5,700 community members, health workers and faith leaders in eight countries, as well as staff from more than 50 offices.  The lessons showed what we got right and where we needed change or improve. This report also provided insights into the critical role our partners played in working with World Vision to reduce the spread of the disease, support health systems and staff, stand with children caught in the middle of the crises and advocate to protect the most vulnerable among them.

An active participation in physical activity is associated with several elements of successful aging, including psychosocial health and well-being. Not getting enough physical activity and increased psychosocial health problems are observed worldwide especially during the first year of Covid-19 pandemic and for that reason, the present study was aimed at analyzing and comparing physical activity of Slovak adolescents during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. Standardized measure to estimate the habitual practice of physical activity (IPAQ-SF) was carried out through intentional sampling of 2375 Slovak adolescents (54.56 % of them adolescent girls), aged 17-19 years (mean 18.10 ± 0.60 years), attending the last year of grammar and vocational secondary schools of Slovakia. Basic descriptive statistics, chi-square test (χ2) and Two -Sample T-Test were used to analyze and compare the data.

This article seeks to review the current knowledge of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the health effects for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN). COVID-19, an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), became a major pandemic in 2020. Recognition of the disease could be difficult, as symptoms in children are at times different than adults and can mimic other common childhood viral infections. Children with underlying medical conditions did make up a higher proportion of those hospitalized, but also were affected in other ways including loss of nursing support, missed education and rehabilitative services, and increased stress for themselves and their families, affecting mental health in this vulnerable population. This review seeks to address what is currently known about the overall effects on CYSHCN and their families, and identify gaps in research, including the implementation of health care systems, and possible suggestions for change in the educational and community supports for this group of individuals. Ongoing analysis of large national and international data sets, as well as smaller reports based on specific congenital anomaly, genetics disease, and acquired childhood illness, and then attention to local resources and family resilience is still necessary.

Brazil was strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the pandemic on sexual and gender minorities’ youth remains unknown. This study aimed to estimate the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and associated factors among adolescent men who have sex with men (AMSM) and transgender women (ATGW) participants of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis cohort study (PrEP1519). This is a cross-sectional design conducted between June and October 2020 in Salvador, Brazil. Serum samples were collected from AMSM and ATGW aged 16-21 years between June-October 2020. IgG and IgM anti-SARS-CoV-2 were detected by chemiluminescence immunoassay, and data were collected through a socio-behavioral questionnaire.

The studies on the association between sleep duration and myopia are limited, and the evidence is inconsistent. This study aimed to evaluate the association between sleep duration and myopia, cycloplegic spherical equivalent (SE) and axial length (AL) among Chinese children during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The study was a cross-sectional study on Chinese children aged 6–18 years. The comprehensive ophthalmic examinations for children included cycloplegic SE, AL, and standardized questionnaires. The questionnaire included sleep duration, parental myopia, outdoor time, and continuous near work duration without breaks. Myopia was defined as SE ≤-0.50 diopters (D).