The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions may have affected children and adolescent’s mental health adversely. We cast light on this question using primary and specialist consultations data for the entire population of children of age 6–19 years in Norway (N = 908 272). Our outcomes are the monthly likelihood of having a consultation or hospitalization related to mental health problems and common mental health diagnoses. We compared a pandemic (2019–2021) to a pre-pandemic (2017–2019) cohort using event study and difference-in-difference designs that separate the shock of the pandemic from linear period trends and seasonal variation. We found temporary reductions in all mental health consultations during lockdown in spring 2020. In fall 2020 and winter 2021, consultation volumes in primary care increased, stabilizing at a higher level in 2021. Consultations in specialist care increased from spring 2021. Our findings could suggest a worsening of mental health among adolescents.

Using a local randomized experiment that arises from the statutory retirement age in Norway, we study the effect of retirement on health across gender and socioeconomic status. We apply data from administrative registers covering the entire population and from survey data of a random sample to investigate the effects of retirement on acute hospital admissions, mortality, and a composite physical health score. Our results show that retirement has a positive effect on physical health, especially for individuals with low socioeconomic status. We find no effects of retirement on acute hospitalizations or mortality in general. However, our results suggest that retirement leads to reduced likelihood of hospitalizations for individuals with low socioeconomic status. Finally, we show that the positive health effects are driven by reduced pain and reduced health limitations in conducting daily activities. Our findings highlight heterogeneity in the health effects across socioeconomic status and across subjective and objective measures of health.

BACKGROUND: There have been widespread concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions on children's and adolescents' mental health. While some studies have found increasing rates of mental health problems during the pandemic, other evidence suggest that mental symptoms and disorders were increasing before the pandemic. This study compared trends in mental healthcare use during the first 15 months of the pandemic with similar pre-pandemic trends. METHODS: Consultations related to mental symptoms and disorders were identified through national registries from primary and specialist healthcare services, including hospitalizations, covering the entire population of children 6-18 years in Norway (N=908 272). The monthly likelihood of having a consultation or hospitalization related to overall mental health problems, and specific diagnoses for depression, anxiety, ADHD and sleep problems were plotted from January 2020 to May 2021 and compared to trends over the same period between 2017-2019 using event study and difference-in-difference designs. FINDINGS: We found reductions in consultations for mental health symptoms and disorders in primary and specialist healthcare during the first weeks of lockdown in 2020. This decline was temporary, and volumes of consultations quickly returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, during fall 2020, consultation volumes related to mental health in primary care increased. This increase persisted into the winter of 2021 but levelled off by the last month of the sample period. The increase in consultation volumes was about 50 % compared to the pre-pandemic period. We did not find increases in consultations in specialist healthcare, except for hospitalizations. CONCLUSION: We found an increase in primary care consultation volumes related to mental health among children that depart from the previously established increases over recent years. We did not see similar increases in consultations in the specialist healthcare. It is unknown whether increases in primary care consultations represent milder cases, which primarily do not need specialist treatment, or if the stability in specialist healthcare consultations reflects capacity problems or timelags in referrals.

Knowing how school reopenings affect the spread of COVID-19 is crucial when balancing children’s right to schooling with contagion management. This paper considers the effects on COVID-19 testing prevalence and the positive test rate of reopening Norwegian schools after a 6-week closure aimed at reducing contagion. We estimate the effects of school reopening on teachers, parents and students using an event study/difference-in-differences design that incorporates comparison groups with minimal exposure to in-person schooling. We find no evidence that COVID-19 incidence increased following reopening among students, parents or teachers pooled across grade levels. We find some suggestive evidence that infection rates among upper secondary school teachers increased; however, the effects are small and transitory. At low levels of contagion, schools can safely be reopened when other social distancing policies remain in place.

Some of the best evidence of effects of control policies on alcohol availability stems from controlled experimental studies in the Nordic state‐owned alcohol monopolies. Publications from these studies do not, however, explain the process leading up to the implementation of changes in policy measures under controlled experimental conditions. In September 2020, the Norwegian state alcohol monopoly started the implementation of extended trading hours, employing a randomised controlled trial design. In this commentary, we give an account of the process leading up to this implementation and how the monopoly considered various pro‐ and contra‐arguments in this regard. This case illustrates that willingness to contribute to strengthened scientific evidence on alcohol control policies can be embedded in the social responsibility of a state alcohol monopoly.