Corona and the long-term consequences
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Pandemic: many children and young people are not well
During the Corona period, more girls went to the doctor for depression, eating disorders and fears.
Photo: dpa / Annette Riedl
Lower Rhine According to a report by DAK-Gesundheit, girls from North Rhine-Westphalia between the ages of 15 and 17 are particularly affected by the long-term effects.
The corona pandemic has consequences for the health of children and young people in NRW. This is the result of the report on children and young people of the DAK-Gesundheit for North Rhine-Westphalia. As a result, girls between the ages of 15 and 17 are particularly affected. Compared to the pre-Crown period, they suffer significantly more often from depression, eating disorders, anxiety disorders and obesity.
For the representative analysis, outpatient and inpatient treatment data from 142,000 children and adolescents were scientifically reviewed and compared with the pre-pandemic situation. Thereafter, overall medical visits, hospitalizations and medication prescriptions continued to decline in 2021. Klaus Overdiek, DAK country manager: “Our current report shows an urgent need for action among our children. Many girls and many boys are not well ”. Long-term consequences are expected for children. Politicians must counter this development as quickly as possible.
Data from the Children and Youth Report shows that the rate of new mental illnesses is on the rise, particularly among young people aged 15 to 17. In 2021, almost a fifth more adolescents were being treated for a language disorder (+ 18%) or a developmental disability (+ 13%) compared to 2019. Even more evident is the increase in adolescents: about a third in more than 15-17 year old girls were treated with an eating disorder (+ 33%) and a fifth with an anxiety disorder (+ 21%). Particularly surprising: adolescents with depression were increasingly treated with drugs, the number of antidepressant prescriptions increased by 23%. For girls between the ages of 10 and 14, the prescription of antidepressants has more than doubled (up 104 percent).
Girls and boys also suffer differently from the effects of the pandemic and associated measures. A look at the age range of ten to fourteen shows this: here, treatments for an eating disorder increased by 36% among girls, while there was a decrease among boys (16%). The gender difference in depression is clearer: While 13% more girls were treated for depression for the first time in 2021, there was a 5% decrease among boys. A similar picture emerges for anxiety disorders: here the number of treatments for boys decreased by 22 percent, while for girls it increased by one percent.
In the age group between five and nine, the data on obesity have increased overall: compared to the pre-pandemic period, 18% more primary school children were diagnosed with obesity in 2021. The increase in girls (21%) is greater than in boys (15%). The difference between boys and girls is much sharper between the ages of 15 and 17: in 2021 the number of new cases among teenage boys increased by 30 percent compared to 2019 and by twelve percent among girls.
