Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37789384›Full record

ArticleArchives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique2023

A dashboard for the evaluation of the effect of school closures on wellbeing of children and parents.

Febe Brackx, Bert De Smedt, Geert Molenberghs

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Febe BrackxL-BioStat, KU Leuven, Louvain, Belgium. febe.brackx@kuleuven.be.
Bert De SmedtFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Louvain, Belgium.
Geert MolenberghsL-BioStat, KU Leuven, Louvain, Belgium.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundWe present a dashboard for the evaluation of the impact of school closures on children and parents during the first wave of the COVID pandemic in 2020 on the various components of wellbeing.

methodsStarting from an explorative literature search by a team of experts from diverse fields (e.g., epidemiology, virology, psychology, education, sociology), we developed a dashboard that allows for the quick evaluation of the general effect of school closures on various indicators of well-being in different groups and for the quality of the available research, at a time where a crisis is ongoing.

resultsIt is concluded that there is evidence that the school closures reduced the transmission of COVID in the first wave in springtime 2020. Nevertheless, a multitude of studies show that the school closures also had a negative impact on different components of wellbeing such as academic achievement, time spent on learning and mental health. Furthermore, the school closures affected not only the children and adolescents, but also the parents that were forced to provide more childcare and help with schoolwork. Longitudinal studies on large representative samples with repeated assessments of wellbeing are necessary to understand the long-term effects of the school closures.

conclusionsThe dashboard provides a first visual overview of the effects of school closures on wellbeing, and can serve as the basis for a future more systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of school closures on wellbeing. It can be considered as a paradigm for rapid obtention of scientific evidence, during a quickly unfolding crisis, also in view of underpinning policy advice.

Indexed as

COVIDDashboardLockdownSchoolSchool closuresWellbeing

Identifiers

PMID37789384
PMCPMC10548715

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.