Die Wiedereröffnung von Schulen während der COVID-19-Pandemie war mit einer deutlich geringeren Rate an psychischen Diagnosen bei Kindern, einschließlich Angstzuständen, Depressionen und ADHS, und einem Rückgang der damit verbundenen Gesundheitsausgaben verbunden

> For this study, the researchers analyzed health diagnoses and spending data among 185,735 children, ages five to 18 years between March 2020 and June 2021, focusing on whether children received mental health care or filled a prescription for a mental health diagnosis such as anxiety, depression, or ADHD. These children lived in 24 counties and 224 school districts across California, where schools stayed closed longer than almost any other state and opened on a staggered basis. The data was procured from the Healthcare Integrated Research Database, a large commercial administrative database with individual-level health insurance claims data, and administrative school-level data from the California Department of Education.

>The study found that the proportion of children with a mental health diagnosis increased from 2.8% to 3.5% over the study period, but that children whose schools reopened had decreased mental health diagnoses relative to children whose schools remained closed. By the ninth month following a school reopening, children’s probability of being diagnosed with a mental health condition was reduced by 43% compared with the period before schools reopened. This included fewer diagnoses of depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Relatedly, health care spending associated with mental health diagnoses decreased. By the ninth month following a school’s reopening, non-drug medical spending decreased by 11%; spending on psychiatric drugs decreased by 8%; and spending on ADHD-specific drugs decreased by 5%.

>The researchers also observed that girls’ mental health benefited more from school reopenings than boys’. “This was one of our most striking findings,” Ozluk said, “underscoring how essential school-based social environments are for girls’ wellbeing.”

>The researchers posited several potential reasons for why school closings may have impacted children’s mental health, including changes in social interaction; irregular sleep patterns; increased screen time; less balanced diets; learning difficulties; familial difficulties due to economic hardship or increased time spent at home together; and less access to mental health services normally available through school.

[Effect of School Reopenings on Children’s Mental Health during COVID-19: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from California](https://journals.lww.com/epidem/abstract/9900/effect_of_school_reopenings_on_children_s_mental.427.aspx)

So….. Homeschooled kids really are weirder than most.  I knew it!

It’s a controversial question but I wonder how much this applies to work-from-home policies as well. Many people’s largest source of socializing comes from office interactions. Even if you socialize with friends after work, a significant amount of your human interaction is being cut.

I looked up the journal and Lippincott Williams and Wilkins has a good rep. Always look up the source if it doesn’t ring a bell.

I think the importance of socialization for well-being is pretty well established, but the real question to be had is how much trade off is acceptable between mental and physical health in a situation such as covid. Would be interested to know if these places that reopened schools during the pandemic also saw increased rates of covid and/or lower physical health outcomes as a result.

Reddit was waxing poetic about how evil it was to send kids back even as the vaccines were rolling out, the initial wave was over, weather was warming (outdoor feasibility), and it was very clear children were not really at risk comparable to any other virus.

Looking back, it’s clear to me that most of Reddit must not have children or are probably helicopter parents who believe people can skirt by in life without taking ANY risks. Everything in life has tradeoffs.