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Original research
Impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of children and young people: an umbrella review
  1. Leonardo Bevilacqua1,
  2. Lana Fox-Smith2,
  3. Amy Lewins3,
  4. Poonam Jetha2,
  5. Athena Sideri1,
  6. Gil Barton2,
  7. Richard Meiser-Stedman1,
  8. Peter Beazley1
  1. 1 Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
  2. 2 Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, UCL, London, UK
  3. 3 Oxford Institute of Clinical Psychology Training and Research, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Leonardo Bevilacqua, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK; l.bevilacqua{at}uea.ac.uk

Abstract

Background Over the past 3 years, a multitude of studies have highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children and young people (CYP). In this umbrella review, we synthesise global evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of CYP from existing systematic reviews with and/or without meta-analysis.

Methods Adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we evaluated 349 citations and identified 24 eligible reviews with medium to high methodological quality to be reviewed narratively.

Results Most of the reviews reported a high prevalence of anxiety disorders, depression, suicidal behaviour, eating disorders and other mental health problems. Most studies that used data at multiple time points indicate a significant increase in mental health problems in CYP, particularly in females and older adolescents.

Conclusions Multipronged psychosocial care services, policies and programmes are needed to alleviate the burden of mental health problems in CYP as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated global health measures.

PROSPERO registration number CRD42021276312.

  • COVID-19
  • MENTAL HEALTH
  • CHILD HEALTH
  • ADOLESCENT

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated and/or analysed for this study. As an umbrella review, this work makes use of information provided by the published articles included.

This article is made freely available for personal use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.

https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usage

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2022-220259

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    Data availability statement

    Data sharing not applicable as no data sets generated and/or analysed for this study. As an umbrella review, this work makes use of information provided by the published articles included.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @Leonardo Bevilacqua

    • Contributors LB, PB and RM-S participated in the design of the study. LB collected, analysed and synthesised the data and led the writing of the article. LF-S, AL, PJ, AS and GB contributed to screening and quality assessment. All the named authors approved the final version of the manuscript. LB is

      the author acting as guarantor.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.