ReviewEuro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin2020
The impact of unplanned school closure on children's social contact: rapid evidence review.
Review in Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 171 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures on self-harming and suicidal behaviors in adolescents: A comprehensive meta-analysis.Suicide & life-threatening behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Risk factors for school-based presenteeism in children: a systematic review.BMC psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Mental disorders following COVID-19 and other epidemics: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- The COVID-19 pandemic and obsessive-compulsive disorder in young people: Systematic review.Clinical child psychology and psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Mental Health of Children and Adolescents Amidst COVID-19 and Past Pandemics: A Rapid Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Social consequences of mass quarantine during epidemics: a systematic review with implications for the COVID-19 response.Journal of travel medicine · 2020Pooled it
- School closure and management practices during coronavirus outbreaks including COVID-19: a rapid systematic review.The Lancet. Child & adolescent health · 2020Pooled it
- Transformations in nursing education: a qualitative study of student experiences in Türkiye during the pandemic and post-pandemic.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Child and adolescent psychiatry consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2025Observational
- Article
- Evolution of social contacts patterns in France over the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: results from the SocialCov survey.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Interactive effects of prenatal adversity and COVID-19 hardship on youth psychological distress: a longitudinal study.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Implementing a Patient Portal for the Remote Follow-Up of Self-Isolating Patients With COVID-19 Infection Through Patient and Stakeholder Engagement (the Opal-COVID Study): Mixed Methods Pilot Study.Journal of participatory medicine · 2024Article
- Violence against women during pregnancy and its dimensions in COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Industrial psychiatry journal · 2024Review
- Hand Washing: When Ritual Behavior Protects! Covid-19 Experience in Children and Adolescents with (and without) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.Actas espanolas de psiquiatria · 2024Article
- A Proposal of Utilizing Six Types of Involvement Model to Guide Kindergarten to 12th Grade School Parental Communication and Support During a Pandemic.Medical research archives · 2024Article
- Mediating roles of sleep quality and resilience in the relationships between chronotypes and mental health symptoms.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The effect of midwifery students' changing life conditions and e-learning experiences on the state of their anxiety and hopelessness during the Covid-19 pandemic.African health sciences · 2024Article
- Assessment of children suicide attempts frequency in the peripandemic period.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BackgroundEmergency school closures are often used as public health interventions during infectious disease outbreaks to minimise the spread of infection. However, if children continue mixing with others outside the home during closures, the effect of these measures may be limited.AimThis review aimed to summarise existing literature on children's activities and contacts made outside the home during unplanned school closures.MethodsIn February 2020, we searched four databases, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, Embase and Web of Science, from inception to 5 February 2020 for papers published in English or Italian in peer-reviewed journals reporting on primary research exploring children's social activities during unplanned school closures. Main findings were extracted.ResultsA total of 3,343 citations were screened and 19 included in the review. Activities and social contacts appeared to decrease during closures, but contact remained common. All studies reported children leaving the home or being cared for by non-household members. There was some evidence that older child age (two studies) and parental disagreement (two studies) with closure were predictive of children leaving the home, and mixed evidence regarding the relationship between infection status and such. Parental agreement with closure was generally high, but some disagreed because of perceived low risk of infection and issues regarding childcare and financial impact.ConclusionEvidence suggests that many children continue to leave home and mix with others during school closures despite public health recommendations to avoid social contact. This review of behaviour during unplanned school closures could be used to improve infectious disease modelling.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.