A study of almost 258,000 children in Scotland found that, after accounting for pre-pandemic trends, there was an increase in the proportion of toddlers showing any developmental issues throughout the period of lockdown and social distancing measures between March 2020 and August 2021.
This increase was greater for those who experienced a longer period of social distancing measures with up to a 6.6 per cent increase.
Data analysis
Researchers say the findings provide important new data on how the Covid-19 pandemic public health and social measures from March 2020 were associated with early child development, including speech and language skills, physical movement or emotional growth.
The University of Edinburgh led study measured relationships between lockdown measures and developmental concerns identified by the health visitors of young children.
The study is the largest known analysis of data assessing Covid-19 measures on child developmental outcomes at a population level in the United Kingdom or Europe.
Health reviews
The researchers assessed data from routine health reviews and examined the proportion of children with any concerns raised by health visitors regarding their development over time.
The study assessed more than 80 per cent of all children in Scotland who were aged 13 to 15 months and 27 to 30 months between January 2019 and August 2023.
Researchers found evidence of increased developmental concerns among children, with up to a 6.6 percentage points increase in the proportion of children with at least one developmental concern across the 72 weeks where lockdown measures were in place from March 2020 to August 2021.
Developmental concerns
Findings were consistent across different types of developmental concerns including problem solving, speech and behaviour.
The proportion of children with developmental concerns remained higher than pre-pandemic levels even after lockdown and social distancing measures were removed in August 2021.
Notably, developmental concerns at 13 to 15 months continued to rise even after the public health and social measures were lifted, while developmental concerns at the 27 to 30 month reviews stopped increasing but remained above pre-pandemic levels.
The study, in partnership with Public Health Scotland, was conducted as part of the wider Covid -19 Health Impact on long-term Child Development in Scotland (CHILDS) study. Both this study and the wider CHILDS study were funded by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
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