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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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

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1171 - 1185 of 1396
Measuring COVID-19 related anxiety in parents: psychometric comparison of four different inventories

AUTHOR(S)
Christian Kubb; Heather M. Foran

Published: December 2020   Journal: JMIR Mental Health

The COVID-19 outbreak and the measures to contain the global pandemic can have an impact on the well-being and mental health status of individuals. Parents of young children are particularly at risk for high levels of parental stress due to the current public health crisis, which can impact parenting behaviors and children’s well-being. Although different initial scales have been developed to measure COVID-19–related anxiety, they have not yet been tested sufficiently in parent samples. A brief measure of COVID-19–related anxiety is necessary for both quick assessment in practice and in larger epidemiological studies of parents. The purpose of this study is to compare the distributions, validities, and reliabilities of four different COVID-19 anxiety scales: Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, Pandemic Anxiety Scale, and one subscale of the COVID Stress Scales.

Feeding students during COVID-19—related school closures: a nationwide assessment of initial responses

AUTHOR(S)
Gabriella M. McLoughlin; Sheila Fleischhacker; Amelie A. Hecht (et al.)

Published: December 2020   Journal: Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

This study aims to conduct a nationwide assessment of child nutrition administrative agencies’ responses to meal service provision during coronavirus disease 2019–related school closures. Systematic coding of government websites (February–May 2020) regarding school meal provision in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, 5 US territories, and the US Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Education.

Cite this research | Open access | Vol.: 52 | Issue: 12 | No. of pages: 1120-1130 | Language: English | Topics: Nutrition | Tags: child health, child nutrition, COVID-19 response, food policies, lockdown, nutrition policy, school attendance | Countries: United States
COVID-19: lessons to date from China

AUTHOR(S)
Xiaoxia Lu; Yuhan Xing; Gary Wing-Kin Wong

Published: December 2020   Journal: Archives of Disease in Childhood
In China, there have been more than 1200 paediatric cases. Most paediatric patients acquire the infection through household contact with infected adults. The disease in children is usually self-limiting and most infected children will recover uneventfully within 7–10 days. Other than symptoms of the respiratory tract, many children may present with gastrointestinal symptoms. Older children are more likely to have asymptomatic infection. Although deaths related to SARS-CoV-2 are rarely reported in the paediatric age group, young children and those with underlying medical conditions are more likely to develop severe illness. Only a small fraction of neonates born to infected mother would acquire the virus by vertical transmission. Because a large proportion of children and adolescents may have asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic infection, children are likely to play an important role in community transmission of this infection. Screening of children who have a definitive contact history will facilitate early diagnosis and isolation of all infected children. This review summarises the lessons learned in China with regard to the current understanding of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the paediatric population.
Cite this research | Open access | Vol.: 105 | Issue: 12 | No. of pages: 1146-1150 | Language: English | Topics: Health | Tags: child health, child mortality, COVID-19 response, disease transmission | Countries: China
COVID-19 in children: could pertussis vaccine play the protective role?

AUTHOR(S)
Mohamad Bachar Ismail; Sarah Al Omari; Rayane Rafei (et al.)

Published: December 2020   Journal: Medical Hypotheses
While COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe, diligent efforts are made to understand its attributes and dynamics to help develop treatment and prevention measures. The paradox pertaining to children being the least affected by severe illness poses exciting opportunities to investigate potential protective factors. The Hypothesis of  this paper is that childhood vaccination against pertussis (whooping cough) might play a non-specific protective role against COVID-19 through heterologous adaptive responses in this young population. Pertussis is a vaccine-preventable infectious disease of the respiratory tract and it shares many similarities with COVID-19 including transmission and clinical features. Although pertussis is caused by a bacterium (Bordetella pertussis) while COVID-19 is a viral infection (SARS-CoV-2), previous data showed that cross-reactivity and heterologous adaptive responses can be seen with unrelated agents of highly divergent groups, such as between bacteria and viruses.
Is vitamin D deficiency a risk factor for COVID‐19 in children?

AUTHOR(S)
Kamil Yılmaz; Velat Şen

Published: December 2020   Journal: Pediatric pulmonology

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is a global health problem that can result in serious complications. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and clinical importance of vitamin D deficiency in children with COVID‐19.This study includes 40 patients who were diagnosed to have COVID‐19 and hospitalized with the real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction method, 45 healthy matched control subjects with vitamin D levels. The age of admission, clinical and laboratory data, and 25‐hydroxycholecalciferol (25‐OHD) levels were recorded. Those with vitamin D levels which are below 20 ng/ml were determined as Group 1 and those with ≥20 ng/ml as Group 2.

Cite this research | Open access | No. of pages: 3595–3601 | Language: English | Topics: Health | Tags: child health, COVID-19, hospitalization, public health
COVID-19 protection needs identification and analysis in the State of Palestine

AUTHOR(S)
Zeudi Liew

Published: November 2020
Prior to the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak in the State of Palestine, the country was already affected by a protracted humanitarian protection crisis due to the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip. The country level Child Protection Area of Responsibility (AoR) wished to explore the impact of COVID-19 on children’s health, education, well-being, safety and protection as well as on families’ socioeconomic situation.
COVID‐19 and children with cancer: parents’ experiences, anxieties and support needs

AUTHOR(S)
Anne‐Sophie E. Darlington; Jessica E. Morgan; Richard Wagland (et al.)

Published: November 2020   Journal: Pediatric Blood & Cancer

Children with cancer were designated as clinically extremely vulnerable if they were to contract SARS‐CoV‐2 due to immune suppression in the early phase of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Our aim was to explore experiences, information and support needs, and decision making of parents with a child with cancer in response to this phase in the United Kingdom. Parents of a child with cancer completed a survey at a time when the UK moved into a period of ‘lockdown’. An online survey was developed by the research team to capture parents’ experiences, information and support needs, and decision making, using closed statements and open text boxes. Descriptive quantitative analyses and qualitative thematic content analysis were undertaken.

Cite this research | Open access | Vol.: 68 | Issue: 2 | Language: English | Topics: Health | Tags: child health, COVID-19 response, diseases, lockdown, parents | Countries: United Kingdom
Epidemiology and transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in two Indian states

AUTHOR(S)
Ramanan Laxminarayan; Shankar Reddy Dudala Dudala; Brian Wahl (et al.)

Published: November 2020   Journal: Science
Although most cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have occurred in low-resource countries, little is known about the epidemiology of the disease in such contexts. Data from the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh provide a detailed view into severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission pathways and mortality in a high-incidence setting. Reported cases and deaths have been concentrated in younger cohorts than would be expected from observations in higher-income countries, even after accounting for demographic differences across settings. Among 575,071 individuals exposed to 84,965 confirmed cases, infection probabilities ranged from 4.7 to 10.7% for low-risk and high-risk contact types, respectively. Same-age contacts were associated with the greatest infection risk. Case fatality ratios spanned 0.05% at ages of 5 to 17 years to 16.6% at ages of 85 years or more. Primary data from low-resource countries are urgently needed to guide control measures.
Cite this research | Open access | Vol.: 370 | Issue: 6517 | No. of pages: 691-697 | Language: English | Topics: Health | Tags: child health, COVID-19, data collection, disease control, disease transmission, epidemiology, low-income countries | Countries: India
Distinct antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in children and adults across the COVID-19 clinical spectrum

AUTHOR(S)
Stuart P. Weisberg; Thomas J. Connors; Yun Zhu (et al.)

Published: November 2020   Journal: Nature Immunology
Clinical manifestations of COVID-19 caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 are associated with age. Adults develop respiratory symptoms, which can progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in the most severe form, while children are largely spared from respiratory illness but can develop a life-threatening multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). Here, we show distinct antibody responses in children and adults after SARS-CoV-2 infection.
L'impact de la COVID-19 et Ebola chez les enfants en Republique democratique du Congo
Institution: Save the Children
Published: November 2020
The purpose of this study was to enable Save the Children to understand and identify the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ebola epidemic on children. This study, its results and recommendations will be shared with different stakeholders to adapt our responses and interventions to save thousands of children's lives.
Saliva: an important alternative for screening and monitoring of COVID-19 in children

AUTHOR(S)
Catielma Nascimento Santos; Karla Mayra Rezende; Nilson Ferreira de Oliveira Neto (et al.)

Published: November 2020   Journal: Brazilian Oral Research
The increasing number of cases of COVID-19 worldwide poses challenges to healthcare systems not only in effectively identifying individuals positive for SARS-CoV-2, but also in isolating cases to minimise contagion in early diagnosing more severe cases that will need hospitalization. Less-invasive collection methods are indispensable in a pandemic scenario as large-scale tests are necessary to understand the actual evolution of contagion in different populations, thus enabling decision-making based on scientific evidence. Saliva has been shown to be an alternative for diagnosing viral infections as this biological fluid can be easily and quickly collected without using specific devices and causing less discomfort during collection, which is an important factor for use in children. Despite the smaller percentage of severe cases of COVID-19 among children, they seem to play an important role in the contagion as they have the same potential of transmission as that of adults. Knowing the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic in children is extremely important, mainly regarding the changing in rules of social distancing, such as re-opening schools and recreational activities spaces.
Perceived knowledge as [protective] power: parents’ protective efficacy, information-seeking, and scrutiny during COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Elizabeth Johnson Avery; Sejin Park

Published: November 2020   Journal: Health Communication
During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents were issued numerous, sometimes changing, safeguarding directives including social distancing, mask use, hygiene, and stay-at-home orders. Enacting these behaviors for the parent presented challenges, but the responsibility for children to follow protocol properly was an even more daunting undertaking. Self-efficacy is one of the most power predictors of health behavior and has been adapted to a context-specific crisis self-efficacy scale conducted on March20, 2020, captures real-time perceptions of parents as coronavirus anxieties peaked. The study reveals a relationship between self- and protective efficacy that is mediated by parents’ assessments of how informed they are about COVID-19. It also examines the role of perceived knowledge on information-seeking and scrutiny of pandemic information found online.
Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children: an ethical analysis with a global-child lens

AUTHOR(S)
Sydney Campbell; Carlo Cicero Oneto; Manav Preet Singh Saini (et al.)

Published: November 2020   Journal: Global Studies of Childhood
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the lives of children and adolescents in resource-limited countries have been significantly impacted in complex ways, while largely having their interests overlooked. The purpose of this colloquium is to examine these impacts across seven resource-limited nations and apply an ethical lens to examine the ways in which children and adolescents have been treated impermissibly.
A rapid review of the impact of quarantine and restricted environments on children's play and the role of play in children's health

AUTHOR(S)
Kelsey M. Graber; Elizabeth M. Byrne; Emily J. Goodacre (et al.)

Published: November 2020   Journal: Child: Care, Health and Development
Amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, there is uncertainty regarding potential lasting impacts on children's health and educational outcomes. Play, a fundamental part of childhood, may be integral to children's health during crises. We undertook a rapid review of the impact of quarantine, isolation and other restrictive environments on play and whether play mitigates adverse effects of such restrictions. Fifteen peer‐reviewed studies were identified, spanning hospitals, juvenile and immigration detention and refugee camps. We found evidence of changes in children's access to play in crises and quarantine. These studies indicated how play might support children enduring isolation but lacked robust investigations of play as an intervention in mitigating impacts of restriction.
Coronaviruses in children: a review of potential mechanisms of childhood protection

AUTHOR(S)
Firas A. Rabi; Mazhar S. Al Zoubi; Montaha Mohammed Al‐Iede (et al.)

Published: November 2020   Journal: Acta Paediatrica
The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) has spread worldwide and the number of cases continues to rise exponentially. Epidemiologic reports indicate that severity of illness increases with age. However, the reasons behind the relative protection of children and infants are unclear. Whether the rationale is host‐related or virus‐dependent is important to determine since the latter could change with viral mutations. This survey reviewed factors that could affect the susceptibility of children to the novel coronavirus.
1171 - 1185 of 1396

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Each quarterly thematic digest features the latest evidence drawn from the Children and COVID-19 Research Library on a particular topic of interest.
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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.