School closure, <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 and lunch programme: Unprecedented undernutrition crisis in low‐middle income countries

Mayurasakorn, Korapat; Pinsawas, Bonggochpass; Mongkolsucharitkul, Pichanun; Sranacharoenpong, Kitti; Damapong, Sanga

doi:10.1111/jpc.15018

Cited by 52 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…During school closure, children and adolescents lost access to critical resources for their health and well-being that were normally provided by the school. These included access to (1) school-based healthcare services [ 41 ], (2) school and childcare center [ 15 , 41 ] based nutrition programs catering to children from poorer households, and (3) critical resources for children with disabilities, including engagement with specialized educators and structured learning environments [ 41 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of COVID-19 School Closure on Child and Adolescent Health: A Rapid Systematic Review

et al. 2021

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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.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…School routines also serve as important coping mechanisms for young people with mental health issues [ 14 ]. Furthermore, in some middle-income countries, such as Thailand, approximately 60% of all school students below secondary level benefit from the national school feeding programs [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of COVID-19 School Closure on Child and Adolescent Health: A Rapid Systematic Review

et al. 2021

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“…Recent studies have highlighted numerous downsides of prolonged school closure on the mental and physical well-being of children, including increased risks of loneliness, academic achievement gaps, reduction in physical activity, malnutrition (for children who rely on school meals), increased risk of domestic abuse and violence, etc. [17][18][19][20][21] . Even within high-income populations, these adverse effects would likely be disproportionately amplified among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global assessment of the impact of school closure in reducing COVID-19 spread

Mei

Luo

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Prolonged school closure has been adopted worldwide to control COVID-19. Such preemptive implementation was predicated on the premise that school children are a core group for COVID-19 transmission. Using surveillance data from the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Anqing, we inferred that children aged 18 or below are only around half as susceptible to COVID-19 infection as adults. Using transmission models parameterized with synthetic contact matrices for 152 jurisdictions around the world, we showed that the lower susceptibility of school children substantially limited the effectiveness of school closure in reducing COVID-19 transmissibility. Our results, together with recent findings that clinical severity of COVID-19 in children is lower, suggest that school closure may not be ideal as a sustained, primary intervention for controlling COVID-19.

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“…Low-income families often rely on free and reduced school breakfasts and lunches to meet the food needs of their children. However, when schools moved to a virtual and distance learning mode, many families (half of pre-pandemic recipients in one analysis [101]) were robbed of this opportunity to regularly feed their children adequate meals [101][102][103][104][105]. School districts across the country have offered free and reduced school lunches to every student, regardless of income, for the 2020-2021 school year, but these can be difficult to receive for children who are not learning in person.…”

Section: Anticipated Effects Of the Pandemic On Family Dietary Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges in Feeding Children Posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Systematic Review of Changes in Dietary Intake Combined with a Dietitian’s Perspective

Campbell¹,

Wood

2021

Curr Nutr Rep

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Purpose of Review To examine the evidence that the dietary quality of children changed between the period preceding the COVID-19 pandemic and the first year during the pandemic. Recent Findings A systematic review of the evidence for dietary changes occurring as a result of the pandemic-related restrictions, in Part I of this article, yielded 38 original research articles. These articles had conflicting results, some describing improvements in overall quality and some describing deteriorations. As a whole the studies were characterized by a low study quality, and children were poorly represented. Taken together, these studies do not provide enough evidence to draw conclusions about whether dietary habits changed or not as a result of the pandemic. However, in a wider, narrative review of the psychosocial changes occurring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the known associations of these factors with a dietary intake in Part II, we conclude that there is a reason to expect that the dietary quality of children might have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Summary One the one hand, the literature fails to provide conclusive evidence on changes in the dietary quality of children resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the broader literature supports the hypothesis that children's dietary quality will have declined during the pandemic. Taken together, we urgently need more high-quality research on children's changes in dietary intake occurring over the pandemic. This will provide important information on whether any potential longterm consequences of such changes, if they exist, need to be examined and ameliorated.

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School closure, COVID‐19 and lunch programme: Unprecedented undernutrition crisis in low‐middle income countries

Cited by 52 publications

References 25 publications

The Impact of COVID-19 School Closure on Child and Adolescent Health: A Rapid Systematic Review

The Impact of COVID-19 School Closure on Child and Adolescent Health: A Rapid Systematic Review

A global assessment of the impact of school closure in reducing COVID-19 spread

Challenges in Feeding Children Posed by the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Systematic Review of Changes in Dietary Intake Combined with a Dietitian’s Perspective

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