Impact of COVID-19 on School Populations and Associated Factors: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Apart from the severe impact on public health and well-being, the chain effect resulting from the COVID-19 health crisis is a profound disruption for various other sectors, notably in education. COVID-19 has driven massive transformation in many aspects of the educational landscape, particularly as teaching and learning shifted online due to school closure. Despite the many impacts of the health crises on school populations, a systematic review regarding this particular issue has yet to be conducted. This study, therefore, attempts to comprehensively review the impact of health crises on school populations (student, teacher, parent, and school administration). An extensive literature search guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) reporting checklist was performed in two selected databases, namely Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus to identify how this particular topic was previously studied. Exclusion and inclusion criteria were set to ensure that only research papers written in English from the year 2000 to the present (April 2021) were included. From a total of 457 studies screened, only 41 of them were deemed eligible to be included for qualitative synthesis. The findings revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic was the only health crisis discussed when it comes to investigating the impact of health crises on school populations. This study found four notable consequences of health crises on school populations, which are impacts on mental health, teaching and learning, quality of life, and physical health. Among factors associated with the impact of the health crises are; demographic factors, concerns about the pandemic, education-related factors, health-related factors, geographic factors, economic concerns, teaching challenges, and parenting in the pandemic. This study is expected to be a reference for future works in formulating crises mitigation strategies to reduce the impact of health crises on schools by exploring the contexts of the crises.

Care Recommendations for the Chronic Risk of COVID-19: Nursing Intervention for Behaviour Changes

“…Childhood suffered changes to their daily lives because school was interrupted, and time at home produced a risk of increased hours in front of screens (television, video games). In addition, periods of isolation in this group pose a greater risk of suffering fear or anxiety problems [ 40 ]. Elderly people present a similar risk due to isolation, and it is recommended that contact be maintained with those who live alone, that multicomponent exercise be encouraged, and that confusion be considered a possible sign of infection [ 41 ].…”

Impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination of children ages 5–11 years on COVID-19 disease burden and resilience to new variants in the United States, November 2021–March 2022: a multi-model study

“…If vaccination induces immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection in children 5–11 years old, then expanding vaccination to this age-group could reduce the potential need for prolonged school closures and other interventions directed towards this age-group. The indirect consequences of prolonged school closures are only beginning to be documented, 39 , 40 but appear to be substantial and detrimental, particularly with respect to learning loss. 41 Overall, there was agreement between models in projecting higher vaccine benefits in periods of high incidence, as illustrated by the new variant scenarios.…”

Impactos desenvolvimentais de saúde mental e aprendizagem em crianças, adolescentes, pais e professores pós-fechamento das escolas: uma revisão sistemática

“…Por fim, professores também relataram piores desfechos de saúde mental com índices de burnout e estresse relacionados a mudança de trabalho. Tais dados vão ao encontro de outros achados demonstrando a prevalência de estresse [120], depressão e ansiedade [15,121] em professores durante o lockdown [122], bem como o impacto do trabalho no bem-estar de professores [123].…”